Kingdom Hearts: Stormset AU
by Slade1987
Summary: Faced with a possible invasion, Sora and Roxas set out on a journey to find an heir to Ansem's throne. They must leave the familiar soil of their homeland and travel across the sea to a continent lost to the centuries.
1. Extra: Bestiary of Storm

_Since I'm having a snip of writer's block I decided to catalogue the major fauna that appear in the KH Storm world. Keep in mind that I of course can't catalogue every single critter in the world but I'll cite the ones that either appear or are mentioned…or are just downright fun. I also reserve the right to introduce other critters not mentioned in this bestiary. Now as a warning, most of my critters are based on various fauna and mega-fauna that actually existed at one point or another in earth's history, so if something looks familiar…well I wonder why? So yeah, in the hopes that this gets my creative juices flowing bear with me. I'll start with the most obvious critter; can you guess what it is?_

**Chocobo**: these animals are found across the Northern Continent. They are the dominant predator in most of their habitats. Depending on the clime they are found in, they can be solitary or gregarious, all known chocobo sub-species are carnivorous but they are known to eat fruits, nuts, and berries as well. Despite the wide variety of sub-species, they have certain characteristics that are shared throughout their family: bipedal, large powerful beak, powerful taloned legs, and compact wings used predominantly for display though some larger species use them in assisted jumps. If domesticated from a young age or born in captivity they are very loyal, loving, and intelligent companions and are used for a myriad of jobs, from war mounts to pack animals, even as pets. They are frequently brightly colored, and combinations of various color patterns have been noted in the wild. Chocobos range in height from 7-13 feet tall and weigh between 500-800 pounds. Their size depends largely on their habitat and diet; birds in forested or mountainous regions tend to be smaller than their plainsland and desert brethren. Those that eat meat also tend towards a larger size than those that eat fruit and nuts. In captivity most breeders feed their birds a meat heavy diet to encourage size and power as these are the most desirable traits. In the wild they have been known to attack and kill humans and formerly domesticated birds if exposed to their wild brethren or allowed to actively hunt can become increasingly violent even towards their owners. (the two named chocobos in Stormrise story are Baast and Red. Red is a nine foot bird that strangely remained domesticated despite being allowed to hunt. Baast is a much larger and heavier animal at twelve feet tall and also has a much larger head and beak than Red)

**Sickle-Moon Shark**: these sharks are found in the tropics around the MediSea, they are not pelagic animals though they have been sighted migrating great distances, presumably in search of food or mates. Unusually these animals mate for life and the young are raised by both parents much like many bird species. This behavior has led to their nickname Silver Nurse, however once the young reach maturity the parents can become violent and even cannibalistic towards their offspring. They are dark gray in color with silver stripes running the length of their bodies; their caudal fin is large and shaped like a slivered moon or sickle, hence their name. They are known man eaters and are considered highly dangerous, especially given their adult size of 19 feet and their tendency to live in tropic and sub-tropic waters where swimmers are common. In rare cases however, it has been observed that solitary Sickle-Moons will actually protect humans from other marine predators and in a few isolated cases may even become semi-domesticated and allow humans to hand feed them. This practice however is not recommended as there is no guarantee that the animal will not eventually see its feeder as food in time. (for those that don't remember, this is the species that Sora nursed back to health when he was living in the Destiny Isles)

**Pliodon**: these are marine reptiles that are found throughout the world's oceans, there are numerous species and they have been observed in every climate from artic to tropical. They share some basic traits, they have short necks, and their heads are roughly a third of their total length and they have four paddle-like fins that they beat up and down in alternating motion to propel them through the water; their bodies end in a short tail that in some smaller species is also paddle-like in shape and is used for bursts of speed. Being reptiles they require air, though some species have been known to dive for up to three hours or more. These creatures come in all shapes and sizes, with the largest being a record breaking 80 feet in length and the smallest being a mere 6 feet. They can be found in shallows, open ocean, continental shelves, and it is assumed in almost any aquatic environ. It should be noted that most species seem to be able to deal with both salt- and freshwater equally well. Despite having a ferocious reputation as the ultimate predators of the sea, pliodons are not all actively carnivorous; many are filter feeders, gliding through the ocean eating tiny animals and lack teeth entirely. The largest species in fact are filter feeders though there have been reports of large carnivorous pliodons these are considered genetic flukes as the largest confirmed carnivorous species rarely exceed 60 feet and 40-50 feet is far more normal.

**Meridon**: these are massive sharks; they are considered the second largest carnivore to swim in the ocean, only the largest pliodons are bigger. Despite their impressive size at 40-60 feet, they actually have a weaker bite than their reptilian stable mates though considering that a grown man can stand upright in their mouths this is little comfort. They have been known to attack small ships, normally they ignore humans, but dense groups of swimmers can attract their attention. Their pups are not raised by the parents as they are solitary animals and the mother will sooner eat her pups than tolerate them. While the adults stay in the open ocean, the young live in close to shore lines and they are one of the few shark species that can challenge the Sickle-Moon Shark for number of attacks on humans. Though unlike the Sickle-Moon these attacks are due to all out aggressiveness rather than simple proximity or opportunity; young Meridon have been known to pursue fleeing swimmers up onto beaches, going so far as to beach themselves to try and get their intended prey.

**Armored Fish**: this name is actually applied to nearly half of known fish species, many of which are only distantly related to each other if at all. The name is in tribute to the external structure of hardened scale and bone that covers the frontal two thirds of the fish's body. The most notable member of this broad group is the Dunkliops which are 27 foot monsters that will eat anything and everything they come across. Not all armored fish are this dangerous as some are no bigger than a human hand. They are considered a staple to any fishing community given their numbers.

**Seabats**: (also known as Stingrays, Skates, and Kites), this species covers a large range of animals that vary in size from no bigger than a soccer ball to animals with 24 foot wingspans. They are carnivorous though they do not attack humans unless threatened, in which case they use potent venom found in a barb on the tip of their tail. Some species are so venomous that a pinprick from these barbs can kill. Despite this, most species are docile and even friendly, going so far as to be playful; it should be noted that the smaller the species the more skittish and aggressive. They eat small cephalopods and crustaceans, larger animals are filter feeders and filter sea water through their mouths to strain out microscopic plankton and krill. Like sharks and other similar animals, they belong to the cartilage fish group, the smallest group of fish in terms of number, but perhaps the most successful.

**Xerinax**: the king of all fish, these are ] monsters that can be up to 200 feet long when fully grown and can live for over a thousand years if they can survive. Though their size would make them seem invulnerable it actually makes them a floating buffet and these gentle giants make up the primary food source of many of the ocean's top predators. Everything from carnivorous armored fish, to Meridons, to pliodons prey upon these massive animals mercilessly, frequently eating an individual alive as it tries to swim away. Given their vulnerability to these predators they have evolved a unique family structure in which younger, smaller and more nimble animals defend the massive adults that in turn provide shelter for the adolescents during their constant migration. They belong to the third species of fish, the unarmored-bony group that comprise roughly half of the fish in the sea.

**Angelfish**: this is another species of cartilage-fish that are distantly related to sharks and Seabats. They appear to be an evolutionary mash-up of their two cousins because while they have the long sleek and streamlined bodies of sharks with the dorsal and caudal fins that are absent in Seabats, they also have wing-like fins that mirror the structures found in Seabats. They are a varied group, with some being up to 30 feet in length with 10 foot wingspans while others are barely a meter long with even shorter wings. They are also varied in their diet, some species hunt actively and larger animals may even attack humans while others are casual filter feeders. The most recognizable fish belonging to the former group is the Saw-Angel; a 20 foot specimen that has an extended structure protruding out from its nose lined with teeth-like saw blades that it uses to slash at its prey. It should be noted that very few species of Angelfish bear this unique structure and this is the only species known to use it in attacks on humans.

**Sabercat**: these are one of the two species of feline found on both the Southern Continent and the so-called Lost Continent. There are various types of these animals and they vary in size from large animals 5 feet at the shoulder and 7-8 feet long too much smaller animals. The one thing they all share is the two, or four in some species, saber-like canines that they use to sever their prey's windpipe and jugular. These canines can be a foot long in larger species though they are not particularly strong when compared to a normal tooth.

**Puma**: the second of the two feline species found in the Southern and Lost continents, they are generally much smaller than their saber bearing cousins and are also far less aggressive in their disposition. They are also more common, though like their cousins they are found in all environments. It is assumed that the two species of cat out-competed the carnivorous chocobos that are only found on the Northern Continent as fossilized remains have confirmed the presence of chocobos in ranges now occupied by these two feline species.

**Moab**: these are distant relatives to the chocobo and are found on all three continents; they are strictly herbivorous and are much more heavily built and larger than any chocobo species. Unlike their distant cousins, they have found success on all three of the continents and are found in great numbers in all their habitats. They are extremely shaggy animals, covered in a down-like feather coat similar to wool when touched. They have no natural defense aside from numbers and all species travel in large groups to defend each other. Many are kept as farm animals where they are sheared for their feathers and butchered for their meat, their eggs, some the size of soccer balls, are also valued for obvious reasons.

**Black Constrictor**: this species of snake is aptly named, they are 20-30 foot snakes that patrol the jungles of the Lost Continent, their massive size makes them more or less immune to any predators and they have been known to attack and kill virtually every other species in their habitat. Though their name implies a black coloring, they are frequently brown or green with black patterning. This coloration assists them in hiding from their potential meals.

**Goldenhood**: this species is the other large snake found on the lost continent, unlike the constrictor this hooded snake, though equally massive, relies on venom which it can spit from two fangs that extend from the roof of its mouth; the stream can reach up to 30 feet, roughly the length of the snake's body. The venom can cause paralysis if it enters the bloodstream and blindness if exposed to the eyes. These brightly colored animals tend to rear up and spread a flap of scaly skin behind their heads when they feel threatened, the underside of this hood is brightly and ornately colored and is assumed to play a role in their courtship as well as warn off any attacker.

**Gorgis**: these massive hairy animals are found only on the Lost Continent and are gentle giants that can be 10-15 feet tall and weigh in at a ton. They are kept for their fur and rich milk as well as their meat. Uniquely, they shed their outer layer of fur, along with their fatty muscle; the meat literally falls off along with their fur. This has made them a staple food source as the animal does not need to be butchered to enjoy a steak. They are herbivores that spend their time wandering slowly through the dense underbrush, carving massive trails through the jungle. When threatened they rear up and use massive fore-claws to slash and gut their attacker. Their only known predators are Goldenhoods and Black Constrictors though groups of pumas and sabercats have been known to attack them.

**Sea Scorpion**: a form of arachnid that bears an eerie resemblance to land based scorpions, hence the misnomer of their name as they are not true scorpions. They vary in size from about 3 feet to 10 feet and are universally carnivorous and highly predatory. They will attack anything, even things that are many times their weight and size with a frenzied zeal though in many cases this ends in the scorpions' death. They are equally at home in and out of the water and should be avoided whenever encountered.

**Rok**: these are massive birds that originated in the Southern Continent and spread across the sea to the Lost Continent, they are large enough to carry off an adolescent gorgis though they prefer to prey upon the flightless and easier to bring down moab. Though not generally considered a danger to humans, they have been known to attack lone humans and even small groups when hungry. They should be given a wide berth whenever they are sighted.

**Triblatytes**: this species ranges across the world's oceans and shores, they are found everywhere in the billions and it is estimated that in numbers alone they outnumber any other large species on the planet. They are distantly related to craps, lobsters, and shrimp. They have a rich meat that is similar in texture to their relatives and are a staple food source for coastal communities. Despite their world wide range, all of them seem exactly the same as every other member of their species. To date there has been no variation found anywhere in the world accepting size, with tropical species being larger with thinner shells and artic species having thicker shells but smaller sizes.

_Okay, I think I got a little out of control with that, but the good news is that I do indeed feel like I can write now, so expect the first chapter and possibly the second and third to arrive this weekend. I hope you enjoyed the bizarre creatures of the world of Storm and forgive me for having an active imagination and a love of nature._


	2. Chapter 1

"Sora, Roxas, the mail is here!" Tara called up the stairs.

Roxas rolled over and blinked against the light as his mind found its way out of its fogginess. For a moment he thought he had to go to school, and then remembered what day it was. He looked up at the cot above him and shoved his foot up between the support boards shoving the mattress up violently.

"Uhnnn…." Came his cousins voice, he smirked, even after everything, Sora was still impossible to wake up.

He kicked again, this time Sora gave an indignant squawk, a moment later his cousin's unruly head of hair stuck over the side of his bunk, his blue eyes staring accusingly at Roxas.

"I hate you."

"How was Kairi," Roxas asked with a smile, the scowl he received in return told him all he needed to know. Sora hated being woken up from his dreams with Kairi, Roxas didn't really blame him, but at the same time thought it was a bit silly to hold the dreams so dearly when they could always go see the real thing.

"Come on, get dressed. The mail's here."

Sora grumbled and swung down from his bed and landed on the floor, stretching and yawning as he walked over to the closet to retrieve a shirt and pants.

"Bet you its Cloud and Leon." He said with a smile.

"I say it's Laguna, we haven't heard from him in a while."

Since returning from Hollow Bastion the previous year, they got mail constantly from one person or another and it had become a habit to bet a bar of sea salt ice cream on whom the letter would be from. If neither of them got it right, then they both put the money to buy the ice cream into a small account they'd set up at the local bank. It had turned into an amusing game, one that Roxas had an aggravating tendency to win.

"You know," Sora said as they walked downstairs, "we haven't been up in almost two months, we need to find sometime to get away from school one of these weekends."

Roxas snorted, "says the guy who can't find the time to finish his homework."

"Hey, with your help I've been doing alright," Sora said defensively.

"Oh sure, getting Cs, and Ds, are doing fine."

Sora grinned, "better than getting E through G."

Roxas rolled his eyes and shoved Sora through the door into the kitchen. Tara had the offending mail sitting on the breakfast table. The boys began sorting through it, as they went though they found nothing from anyone.

Sora lifted up the final letter, "this is addressed to us, but it doesn't have a name, just this."

He handed it to Roxas, who examined it for a moment before tapping Sora on the forehead with the letter. "Jeez Sora, you really are a dolt sometimes. That's the royal emblem, this is from the court!"

"From Maleficent," Sora said with a wince.

"Or Mim, Merlin, or Cid; they're all part of the council remember?"

Sora nodded as Roxas opened the letter and began reading aloud.

_Dear Bearers,_

_Due to certain developments beyond the borders of Our Kingdom we require your immediate presence at the Capital City. We have sent letters to all related parties and you are hereby excused from all other duties normally attributed to your age to answer this summons. Fair for a ticket from Twilight to Hollow has been provided for both of you. There will be a special coach waiting for you upon presentation of this summons to the ticket clear at Twilight Station. _

_Please proceed with all haste,_

_The Interim Council_

The boys exchanged confused looks; Tara had stopped cooking to listen and scowled.

"Haven't they put you through enough? If your brothers have anything to do with this I'll skin them both!"

Sora smiled, when they'd finally come home the previous year Tara had hardly let any of her four sons—she considered Sora and Leon her children even if they were technically her nephews—out of her sight for more than a minute; and since Leon and Cloud had gone back to Hollow Bastion her efforts had doubled on Sora and Roxas.

"I'm sure they don't even know we're being summoned," Sora said, he looked at Roxas. "I guess we need to pack."

"Oh no you don't," Tara scolded them, "I am making you both breakfast first, and then you are going to your father's bakery and taking some sweet rolls with you for the trip."

An hour and a half later they'd finally gotten on the special train that had been sent for them and were being whisked along at a speed that was probably impossible for any other engine to achieve. Of course Cid's special toys were never anything like the norm so this wasn't that surprising really.

"What do you think it is?" Sora asked as he watched the scenery rush past the window. "It can't be Heartless; they made a point of deploying Cid's system in every major city, including Twilight right?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, considering. "It must have something to do with another kingdom, remember last time Laguna mentioned something about the countries to the north and east conducting some kind of exercise very close to our borders?"

"You don't think we've been invaded do you?"

Roxas shook his head, "we'd have heard about that, besides they wouldn't expect us to fight anyways, we've had no training."

"Yeah, I mean we've only killed at least a hundred Heartless a piece right?" Sora said with a grin.

"Sora I'm serious, we've had no military training, and our magic skills are nothing spectacular. The most I can manage even after all this time is a gentle breeze or lighting a candle."

"Hey, I can send Siefer flying across the Sandlot now." Sora said smugly.

Roxas remembered the incident, another one of the pointless—he'd never have called them pointless before the events of the previous year, but things got put into perspective when people fought and died around you—fights over whose turf was whose that Seifer and Hayner were constantly fighting. Sora had decided to end it quickly and literally blown Seifer away with a miniature whirlwind that had sent him flying across the lot and into a wall. Most everyone had just stared dumbstruck, and Seifer had called it a day after that. There hadn't been a single scuffle since and the Sandlot had quickly become a popular hangout for Roxas, Sora, and their friends.

"Do you think they'll ask us to be ambassadors?" Sora asked, excitement making a home in his voice.

"Oh please, what would we do? I think the only ones of the five bearers that could pull that off would be Namine or Kairi. You and Riku are too quick to get angry, and I don't think I could stand up in a royal court without feeling sick."

"What if they just want to use us to show that the world heart is on our side?"

"I guess, but that would still have its problems."

Sora leaned back and crossed his legs, tapping a foot impatiently, "I can't wait till we get there. I want to know what's up."

Roxas agreed, but he had other things on his mind. She was the same age as he was, blonde, blue eyed, and he loved her. It had only been a little under two months since he'd last seen Namine, but he always missed her when they were apart. As the train raced northwards, he let his mind wander away from royal courts and warring kingdoms to simple thoughts about the girl he loved. No matter what else this trip bore for him he'd get to see Namine again. That was the only part he cared about.

"Hey Roxas, wake up!"

Roxas shuddered and stretched with a yawn as he climbed out of the bunk, he looked at the clock on the wall. It was four in the morning, had they arrived finally? The train wasn't moving anymore, so they must have.

Sora smiled at him, "hey come on, Laguna's out on the platform."

Roxas looked out the window; indeed, Laguna was standing quietly outside on the train platform with his chocobo Baast pawing restlessly at the ground besides him. He grabbed his pack and followed Sora off the train.

"Hey you two, lets get going we've been waiting for you."

"We can't get some rest first?" Roxas moaned.

"That was what the train ride was for, come on." Laguna's voice softened as he saw the look on Roxas' face. "Don't worry; Namine and Kairi are both at the castle already."

Sora was looking at Baast quietly; a distant look on his face, Roxas caught it and despite being tired, wrapped his arms around his cousin.

"Don't worry, I bet he's happily chasing deer right about now."

Sora nodded, "I hope so…I miss him still."

Roxas shared the nod, "yeah, me too. Come on, we don't want to make the girls wait do we?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Outside the station an open chocobo drawn carriage was waiting for them along with a knight escort. They weren't wearing their armor, but their weapons were strapped to their backs and that alone made Roxas feel a little nervous. He shivered in the early morning chill as they clambered into the coach.

"Here," Sora said, opening his pack and producing what Roxas first thought was a blanket. Then he realized what it was.

"You brought it?" He asked in surprise.

"Of course," Sora said, spreading his father's coat out and wrapping it around them both. They huddled close against the cold as they felt the carriage move forwards.

The coat was still a few sizes too big for Sora, it was loose on Leon and Cloud too, but still he kept it with him whenever they traveled. This past winter during the festival in Twilight, Roxas, Namine, Sora, and Kairi had climbed the clock tower to watch the fireworks. It had been cold and they'd all huddled together under the massive jacket passing around two mugs of hot cocoa. It had been one of the happiest moments of Roxas' life, so in a way the jacket was starting to become important to him as well and he was glad that Sora had brought it with him. The carriage hurried them through the quiet, dimly lit city. The clacking of chocobo claws on the cobblestones sounded like hammers on steel, Roxas watched as the cityscape went by. He noticed areas where the previous year's destruction was still not fully repaired.

These were areas that had been burned or torn apart when the Heratless had invaded the city following Ansem the Wise's death and the activation of Xehanort's artificial heart. A lot of people had been killed before the knights, soldiers, and elites had managed to coral the population into so called safe zones. Roxas and Sora had been excused from the clean up that had followed Xehanort's defeat and been allowed to return home, but he still remembered the looks of shock and despair on many of the peoples' faces as they'd headed towards the station and home. It had been disturbing to think that even in victory there was still so much agony. It had been his second taste of such, the first had been the battle in the gorge to the east of Hollow Bastion where the Heartless army had first attacked he still had nightmares about the aftermath of that battle and the cries of the wounded and dying.

He was so lost in memory that he didn't realize that they'd stopped until Sora pulled the jacket off of them. They clambered out and were led by Laguna through the courtyard stables and into the castle itself, it too had seen better days, but the damage wrought by the Heartless was largely repaired here as well. It was just a pity that the lives lost couldn't be so easily replaced. They moved in silence through the castle halls, everyone they passed seemed to recognize them and Roxas heard whispers here and there, thankfully everything he heard was praise or awe. He didn't want to think that people resented himself and the other bearers; he wanted to believe that they'd helped everyone and made the world a better place. In the end he knew that they had, if Xehanort hadn't been stopped when he had, then things would have gotten much worse it was even possible that the two hearts could have destroyed the world in their battle for primacy. He'd played a role in preventing that, and he hoped that people weren't angry at him for not being able to save everyone.

They reached the courtroom; the familiar and massive double doors stood ajar, Laguna paused and spoke with the guardsmen standing silently to either side of the arched doorway.

"Close the doors once we're inside and don't let anyone else in."

The guards saluted, Roxas noticed the uniforms they wore now, no longer the black and purple they now wore red and yellow to signify their failure and shame in protecting their king. From what he understood, they would continue to wear those colors until a new ruler took up Ansem's place on the throne. He hoped that day would come soon; he imagined people were becoming restless without a rightful ruler sitting over them. Maleficent, Merlin, Cid, and Mim were good people, but they had no right to rule aside from the power vested in them by Ansem when he died. They passed through the doors, and they boomed shut behind them. The trio began the long walk towards the vacant throne and whatever awaited them.


	3. Chapter 2

The throne sat vacant on its raised dais upon which Sora could still envisage Ansem's smiling and intelligent face staring down at him quietly for the first time when he and Roxas had come before him. Now no one sat there, instead a table had been erected before the throne, circular in shape, it was a massive affair that allowed for dozens of people to sit at it and confer with one another. The seats around the table were filled with familiar faces; he smiled at Riku, who nodded in return, as he set his pack down and took a seat besides Kairi, reaching under the table to clasp her hand. He wished that their greeting could be warmer but everyone looked so solemn that he just didn't think that they could get away with it. Roxas took a seat next to Namine, and she scooted her chair closer to him and leaned against him, Laguna sat down besides Cid.

At the chair set before the throne Maleficent cleared her throat. "Now that we're all here, we need to decide what we shall do."

"Can we beat Sparda or Daedal in a war if it comes to it?" Mim asked, looking at the military leaders assembled.

Sephiroth, Paine, and Laguna all exchanged glances before Sephiroth spoke. "Either nation outnumbers us by a significant amount. If we only have to fight one, I can guarantee victory, however if the other should attack us while we are already engaged, even with every guard unit across the kingdom summoned to muster our chances would drop drastically."

"And there is no reason to think they wouldn't take advantage of the chance," Merlin said, "in fact I'm sure of it."

Atop his pointed hat, Archimedes puffed up, "pinfeathers, no matter how well trained your forces are they can't hope to win against the numbers you'd be facing."

"Shut up featherbrain," Mim chided, eying Archimedes in annoyance, Sora suspected that Mim still wanted to throw Archie in a pot and use him for a stew.

"Is war really our only option?" Cid asked, looking around at everyone.

"We've already received demands from both kingdoms, asking us how long we intend to 'unjustly govern' the kingdom." Merlin said direly.

Mim snorted, "children with sticks crying at their mothers' skirts."

"Agreed," Maleficent said dourly. "However they are children that we must placate if we intend to maintain peace in this land."

Sora looked over at Riku and he could tell from his friend's face that the conversation had been going in this vein for sometime now. He didn't really like the idea of having to fight other people, but if he had to for the kingdom's sake, for the sake of everyone, what was the difference between that and fighting for the heart? Sadly his own heart told him the answer, then he'd been fighting for the lives of everyone in the world, this would be a war solely for his own people; a selfish, human, war.

There was silence for a time, and then Laguna spoke up. "Perhaps we ca—"

Before he could finish his thought the room exploded in brilliant light and showering sparks, everyone leapt to their feet, even Sora. In the course of one second weapons and spells were at the ready like it was as normal as pulling out your wallet. Sora noticed that Namine was still seated, as if nothing had happened. Out of the cloud of sparks, Yen Sid stepped. He considered the force arrayed against him and arched his eyebrow in consideration.

"Please, don't stand on my account." He said, and with a wave, Sora found himself seated again, his keyblade no longer in attendance, everyone else bore the same surprised expressions at their sudden repositioning.

"What do you want?" Maleficent growled.

Yen Sid walked around the table slowly, his gaze sweeping over everyone as he passed before he spoke.

"To help," he stated simply.

"You, help?" Mim said dubiously, "why?"

Yen Sid shrugged, stroking his beard as he considered the vacant thrown. "I am an agent of balance and calm, and presently there is a lack of both and I see that it will get worse if I leave it in the hands of others."

He turned, his robes sweeping around him as he spun. "You have a problem, you require a legitimate heir to the throne."

"Ansem never bore any children," Maleficent said authoritatively; "legitimate or otherwise."

"True," Yen Sid said considering with a calm expression. "Ansem the Wise, for all his wisdom, never took a wife or even so much as a milk maid to his bed. However, he is not without an heir."

Merlin caught on first, "his sister, Morrigan."

"Absolutely not," Maleficent roared, rising to her feet once more and slamming her staff against the table violently.

"For once the crone and I agree," muttered Cid, "I was just a kid at the time, but I remember what the last war was like, and it was her fault it got started."

Merlin raised a hand, shaking a finger reproachfully. "Can we afford not to think of it in light of the current situation?"

"You won't have to consider it," Yen Sid said calmly, strolling around the table quietly. "Morrigan is not who I had in mind, rather her son."

"She had a son?" Mim asked curiously.

"Before her consort and would be usurper passed on, he left his seed with her. She bore the child in her banishment and has raised him away from the battles of the court."

Paine spoke up then, "I'm too young to remember the war, but why are we considering the son of a traitor as the heir to the throne?"

Yen Sid smiled sadly, "for all her beauty and charm, Morrigan was a pawn being used by her consort in his bid for power. She loved her brother dearly, but she loved the man who used her position to launch the country into civil war more."

"Even assuming we'll accept this," Sephiroth said coolly, "how would we find this son? No one has seen or heard from Morrigan since her banishment, she could be anywhere."

"Actually, she's dead." Yen Sid said simply, causing a murmur to run through the assembled, Sora listened intently as the wizard continued. "However the son has grown to be a fine man of eighteen and is certainly eligible for the throne."

"You want us to pluck a boy raised as a peasant and place a crone on his head and call him a king? Don't make me laugh." Maleficent jeered.

"And why not," Yen Sid inquired calmly. "You took school children, gave them a task, and called them saviors."

The table hushed as everyone focused their attention on the five bearers sitting together, Sora suddenly felt very uncomfortable as everyone stared at him and the others. Though he supposed that Yen Sid did have a point, they had taken school children and thrown them into a war to save the world. Though it was more the heart's fault than any of there's"

"I like it," Laguna said, speaking for the first time since Yen Sid's appearance."

Sephiroth looked at him disbelievingly. "You can't be serious."

Laguna shrugged, "we need an heir, Yen Sid is telling us there is one. What's the issue?"

"He's the son of a traitor, no one will accept him." Maleficent muttered.

"I suspect," Merlin said eying Yen Sid with a knowing twinkle in his eye, "that the boy already has the life experience to expunge him of his mother's mistakes."

"That still doesn't answer the question of how we find him." Paine pointed out, Sephiroth gave her an annoyed glare, Sora suspected it was because she was going along with all of this; but their bickering was nothing new to him, in fact it always seemed a hallmark of their marriage.

"Oh that is quite simple, it will be the retrieving him that may prove difficult." Yen Sid said with an ironic smile.

Mim's eyes narrowed, "you can't be serious."

Yen Sid looked surprised, "I must be failing in my age if you can tell what I am going to say."

Merlin spoke next, his voice resigned, "the Lost Continent."

"Oh gods above," Maleficent said furiously, "you have lost your mind old man. How do you propose we find the boy in that cursed land?"

Yen Sid smiled enigmatically, his gaze shifting to look at the bearers, Sora felt his eyes boring into his very soul and felt petrified by the power he saw in Yen Sid's expression.

"Trust your hearts to make things right."

And with that he vanished in another shower of sparks, leaving the room deathly silent as everyone considered what had just been revealed to them.

"I hate all this magic." Cid muttered in annoyance, his arms crossed, and with that, the silence broke and everyone started speaking at once, Sora and his friends were left as spectators as the adults tried to be heard. Throughout it all, he couldn't shake the look Yen Sid had given him, and he felt that he knew what that look had said. He stood up and opened his mouth, though he had no hope of being heard, everyone heard him. The room silenced and all eyes turned to him as if he'd cast some kind of spell of his own, sitting besides him, Roxas put his head in his hands; Namine was still smiling quietly.

"Why did you have to go and say that?" Roxas asked miserably.

"Someone has to do it, you yourself said that we couldn't be much use around here, so why not go and try to find the heir? We might be able to stop the war after all."

"I didn't mean that we should go running off to a continent that has been in isolation for the last thousand years! Sora you do remember what's been said in our classes' right? The Lost Continent hasn't been visited successfully for over three centuries! Everyone that goes there either never comes back, or is completely insane when they do! How is this helping anyone?"

Riku chuckled and put an arm around Sora's shoulder. "This is Sora we're talking about, if he weren't getting us into trouble constantly what good would he be?"

Roxas scowled at Riku and was joined by Sora, "hey I'm not that bad."

Riku patted him on the shoulder, "yes, you are."

The harassment lightened the mood significantly and gave Roxas and Namine a chance to talk quietly.

"I saw your expression when Yen Sid was speaking," he said, an arm around her waist as she leaned against him. "You did it again didn't you?"

She leaned over and kissed his cheek fondly, "Grandma tells me not to share it with anyone other than you, and even then, you do tend to panic more than necessary Roxas."

He scowled even though he knew she was right, sighing he kissed her lips softly. "You're impossible Namine."

She smiled mischievously, "I love you Roxas."

Just then the door to the room the five bearers were sharing for the moment opened, Cloud, Leon, Tifa, and Zack entered. Leon took one look at Sora and wrapped him in his arms, head-locking him and knuckling his head.

"You dolt, can't I leave you alone with anyone without you getting into trouble?"

"Let me go Leon!" Sora squawked as he wormed out of his brother's grasp.

"Not likely," Cloud said, grabbing Sora's arms and holding him, "Tifa?"

She bore a devious smile as she bore down on Sora and pulled his shirt off, she began tickling him mercilessly.

"Ahhhahahha—Tifa please sto—aahahhaha! Help," Sora cried desperately.

None of the others moved Zack didn't do anything either, he just sat back and watched the sibling lunacy until it reached the inevitable conclusion: Sora panting breathlessly with his brother and elder cousin standing over him.

"Seriously Sora, what were you thinking?"

"I just got a feeling from Yen Sid that we had to do this…" he shrugged helplessly, "I can't really explain it, but we have to help somehow right?"

Cloud and Leon looked at one another, nodding, "we're coming." Cloud said.

"What?" Roxas asked in confusion.

"You seriously think mother will let you go by yourselves? You'll be lucky if she doesn't try skinning all of us first." Cloud chided.

"I'm going too; I can't let all my boys out of my sight at once." Tifa said, putting an arm around Cloud's. He'd gotten much better in the year since he'd first started accepting Tifa's affections; he put his own arm around her waist and pulled her close. The motion still seemed fairly mechanical though.

Cloud looked over at Zack who shrugged, "all for one, one for all." The squad leader said calmly.

"Then it's settled," Leon said, smirking at Sora.

"You aren't going anywhere without us."

Riku looked at the door with a frown, "what are you three doing here?"

"Mother told us about your quest, we can't let you go off without backup." Loz said emotionally, "you're our little brother."

Yazoo nodded stoically as Kadaj shrugged nonchalantly. "Besides, you're going somewhere dangerous right? So you need all the help you can get."

"The more the merrier," Zack said cheerfully.

Roxas scowled at his cousin, Sora looked a bit taken aback by the growing size of their intended group. He hadn't expected to get so many people involved in any of this, but he was glad that everyone was willing to help.

Author's Note: Just me or do those two always seem to get into trouble? Things are getting underway nicely and I'm actually developing some confidence about this storyline so please let me know what you think.


	4. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Yes, it took a while, but for those of you that noticed, I have another story that I've been working on and that one sorta took priority because its getting close to finishing...plus I'm thinking of actually trying to publish it once I finish and edit it again (so you might understand why I've been working on that one). Anyways, so here is chapter 3...does anyone get the feeling that Cid is a younger, angrier version of Q Division? Yes well, just putting that out there, Sora, as usual can't resist and neither could I...Aerith just struck me as that kinda gal. Also, and you can hate me for this later, I've thought up even more trouble so that should this story go where I think it will (you never know, they sometimes grow legs and wander off) I may be quoting Scream by saying: "All great trilogies come in threes." At least I think I heard that said in one of the Screams, maybe I'm crazy. Anyways, hope you enjoy, chapter 4 coming sooner than chapter 3, I promise!

"I can't believe we're really having this discussion," Leon stated with a dour expression as he picked at his food.

"Why not Leon, Tifa's going, and Zack is letting Aerith go as well. I don't see why I can't come as well. Remember last year? You seriously think I'll let you go off without me?"

Rinoa's tone said she wouldn't accept no for an answer, even if she was debating it with Leon. At some point Aerith and Rinoa had decided, Sora suspected collectively, that they'd be accompanying the expedition since their lovers, in Aerith's case husband since she and Zack had gotten married over the spring, were going and neither woman wanted to be left behind. Given that both of them were not only healers, and again in Aerith's case a doctor, but spell casters as well; the combination certainly made for a powerful argument for their presence on the trip regardless of personal feelings.

Leon looked over at Julia pleadingly, but Rinoa's mother was pointedly not paying any attention to the conversation.

"I think you're stuck with her Leon," piped up Yuffie, she'd wanted to come as well, but both Laguna and Julia had refused to let their youngest daughter go anywhere, by their logic it was bad enough that their two eldest girls were planning on going, but there was little either of them could do about Rinoa or Tifa, Yuffie was another matter.

Leon looked like he was going to protest further, but Rinoa grabbed his hand and held it up, interlacing her fingers with his. "What do these rings symbolize Leon?"

Sora's brother looked like he'd been slapped; admittedly the trap Rinoa had sprung was perhaps a little underhanded, if true.

She nodded. "Exactly, we're in this life together, for better or worse, and you aren't leaving me behind for god knows how long."

Laguna chose that moment to make his entrance with dessert, "alright, that's enough conversation about who is going where and when. For now enjoy."

In Sora's considered opinion, of the three people who cooked for him on a regular basis, his Uncle, Laguna, and Mim; Laguna was third best after his Uncle, and Mim was first if for no other reason than she'd been alive for multiple lifetimes and had plenty of practice. Laguna was a good cook, but Sora's Uncle was a professional so as much as Sora enjoyed Laguna's meals, he had to admit the superior quality and ability of the other two cooks in his life. Of course that didn't stop him from gorging himself on Laguna's food. And anyways it distracted everyone from the argument at hand, which of course Leon had already lost whether he realized it or not. Sora was fairly certain that Rinoa was going to come along, and really he couldn't think of a reason why she shouldn't considering that Namine, Kairi, Tifa, and Aerith were already going as well.

"Laguna, aren't you going to say anything about this?" Leon asked helplessly.

Laguna looked up from his food, taking overly long to swallow as he looked between his daughter and Leon before setting his spoon down.

"She's a grown girl; she can make her own decisions." He said simply.

"What about me! I'm grown too, why ca—" Yuffie began again.

"You're thirteen," Laguna said pointedly, his tone forbidding any argument.

Yuffie muttered something under her breath, Tifa who was sitting next to her pinched her side teasingly, soliciting a squeak from her little sister.

"Sora and the others were fifteen—fourteen when it first started happening to them." Yuffie said sullenly.

"Riku was sixteen when the real fighting started," Laguna said calmly eyeing his youngest daughter, "and all five of them had the heart's protection, not to mention the keyblades."

"It isn't fair."

Julia and Laguna exchanged amused expressions before the former spoke up, "dear, you'll get to have your own adventures eventually with someone special. I promise."

Yuffie didn't look convinced, "you promise?"

Julia reached over and took Laguna's hand, holding it tightly as she nodded with a smile, "I promise."

Rinoa took that opportunity to lean against Leon, "see? Even they agree that this is fine."

"They are—ack!"

Leon scowled at Sora as his little brother kicked him in the shin; Sora tried his best to look innocent.

"Come on Leon, you know you'll lonely," Roxas said.

Leon threw his hands in the air, "alright fine! Since everyone in my family and beyond seems bent on ganging up on me," he continued to scowl at Sora in particular. "Traitor," he muttered.

"Hey, she did fine last year remember?" Sora said cheerfully.

Leon winced, "don't remind me."

"Alright that's enough," Laguna said commandingly, "lets just enjoy the rest of the evening without bickering over who is doing what shall we? And before I forget, Cid and I want to your entire party in the armory tomorrow, we have some things to give you so make sure you drag Namine and Kairi along, and Riku and his cousins as well. We'll need all of you."

Everyone exchanged glances, wondering what on earth Cid was up to this time, and how Laguna was involved, but no one seemed to have any more idea than the next person. They'd have to sleep on it.

"Ugh, why did we have to get up so early?" Sora moaned as they walked through the halls of the castle, heading towards the armory.

"Probably because you decided to stay up late," Riku said testily, "now quit complaining already."

Sora looked hurt and looked to Roxas as if he'd help, but his cousin just glared at him, still not in the mood to forgive Sora for dragging him into this mess in the first place. The group proceeded in relative quiet, no one really having anything to say. It was a fairly large group actually, Kadaj, Riku, Loz, and Yazoo formed the vanguard, followed by Sora, Roxas, Namine, and Kairi, with Zack, Aerith, Tifa, Leon, Cloud, and Rinoa following. Despite having spent a great deal of time in the castle the previous year, and even fighting a running battle in it at one point, Sora had never seen much of it, and the armory was something new and potentially exciting. So despite being tired he was interested to be seeing something new. In the year since the Heartless rampage through Hollow Bastion the castle had been largely repaired and for the most part it was impossible to tell that there had ever been anything wrong.

They rounded a corner and found Laguna waiting for them leaning against a heavily reinforced steel door, when he'd left the house was a mystery to all of them since he hadn't been there when they'd woken up. He smiled as they approached and pushed the heavy door open easily despite its apparent size.

"Come on, Cid has been grouching since dawn, this should quiet him down a little."

He led them inside and Sora felt his jaw drop, the armory was more like a factory. It was a mess for one, the floor was covered in who knew what, almost all of it some form of metal work, there was even what looked like a caster built into some kind of casement with wheels. As they moved through the maze of what have you, he finally started recognizing things that actually looked like actual weapons instead of tinker toys; and there were even more of these. Racks, rows, chests, and cabinets filled with casters, swords, axes, maces, staves, and a multitude of armors, both for humans and chocobos too, he saw one full set of chocobo armor, that had to be for a twelve or thirteen foot tall bird, complete with metal beak and bladed talon covers. It made him feel more than a little ill at ease to see the almost skeletal armor looming over them like some kind of undead guardian.

Laguna stepped up to a cone shaped object that had strange light accompanied by crackling and hissing sounds emanating from it. He banged on the side, when there was no response he gripped the top of the cone and flipped it open as if it were a lighter. Sora and the others looked at each other in bewilderment as Laguna stuck his head inside.

"Cid," he bellowed.

There was no response, Laguna withdrew and looked around the weapons racks for a moment before selecting a plated gauntlet which he slipped on over his fist and began wrapping on the sides of the cone; each stroke echoed like a clock tower, Sora actually had to cover his ears.

A moment later, a filthy Cid emerged with a cigarette clenched in his jaw and soot covering his face. He had a blast shield for wielding pushed up over his equally filthy face.

"What the hell, can't I get any work done?"

Laguna eyed him, and thumbed towards the assembled crowd, "kids are here."

Cid clambered out of the cone shaped apparatus and whipped his face with a rag, not that it did anything. Aerith walked up to him and offered him a clean one, while also plucking the cigarette from his mouth.

He finished whipping his face and looked at Laguna, "let's get started then."

Laguna stopped leaning on the cone and strolled over to storage cabinet, taking out several wrapped bundles and placing them on the nearest empty work bench, Cid rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Sora couldn't help himself, he imagined a child who had just been let loose in Santa's Workshop and he giggled.

"What is it?" Roxas asked in confusion, Sora just shook his head, he'd tell his cousin later.

"Alright, first things first," Cid said, he unzipped the largest of the stacked bundles and pulled out what looked like the black leather armor the Elites typically wore.

"These have been upgraded, you'll see what I mean once you get them on," Laguna looked at him pointedly, Cid sighed. "And don't flex in them for the love of god, I don't need a mess."

Everyone exchanged glances as Cid held up the first pair to Cloud and Leon who looked at them like they might stab them from a distance. Finally Cid just shoved them into their arms.

"Don't be stupid, just don't flex anything. Boys over there, girls over there," he gestured to two separate doors as he continued to hand out the armors Roxas took his, and Sora followed suit.

"What do you think he means by don't flex?" Sora asked.

"Sora, if you try to, I will kill you." Roxas warned, he looked miserable as they followed their brothers to the dressing room.

Ten minutes and a nasty gash later that Aerith, half-naked, had to heal when Sora had indeed tried flexing and found out why you shouldn't, the only thing redder than Sora's blood had been his face as Aerith had knelt with her armor around her waist and just her bra up top. There were implanted blades throughout the armor; flexing certain parts of your body triggered the blades. The two they'd discovered were in the left and right wrist, and in either boot toe. Now they were all standing in front of Cid and Laguna who were making sure the armors fit where they should, they very pointedly each handled their own daughters, or in Cid's case, niece.

Cid scowled at Sora, "I said not to flex kid, still don't listen very much do you?"

Sora flushed, besides him, Aerith smiled and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Be nice Uncle Cid, he's curious."

"He's a monkey," responded Cid with a furrowed brow. "Next time I'll tell him to flex and see what happens."

"Don't worry Sora, I have plenty of energy, so I can put anything you lose back where it belongs."

Cid rolled his eyes as he moved away, "one of my own girls, a magic user."

Laguna stepped back from them and nodded approvingly, "not half bad Cid, I think you outdid yourself."

"It's better than that clunker gear your boys wear, and they won't drown if they fall in a puddle either." Cid chastised him.

Laguna shook his head, eyeing the older man with a disapproving smile, "I thought we agreed never to mention that."

"You almost drowned in a puddle?" Tifa asked in bewilderment.

Laguna shrugged, "it was a marsh and I was thrown off Baast and landed on my back."

Cid snorted, sticking a fresh cigarette in his mouth, and picking up a blow torch to light it as he clamped it between his teeth. "Idiot was just a kid; I had to come fish him out."

"And we're all grateful for that, now can we move on?" Laguan said, his voice hinting at some annoyance.

"Julia was worried sick about her poo—"

"Cid, next please?" Laguna said pointedly.

Cid nodded, waving his hands, "fine fine, you've already discovered all the blades those suites you're wearing have in them, you figured out the hard way that they get activated by pressure pads applied to certain areas, they deactivate the same way. The armor itself can take heat and cold equally well, nothing short of a furnace is going to burn it, and you can even go running around in the snow without worrying about frostbite. Its reinforced based on what the Heartless threw at us last year, so nothing natural is going to be punching a hole through your vital organs. If it does though, that's why Aerith and Rinoa are going with you I suppose. Anyways," he put another of the large bundles up on the work table and patted it fondly. "We get to the actual weapons."

Sora and Roxas exchanged glances, 'actual weapons?' Just what were the armors supposed to be then?


	5. Chapter 4

Cid unwrapped the latest package and picked up two staves, he beckoned Rinoa and Aerith over.

The latter frowned as she took one of them "thank you, but I already carry one of these."

"Yeah, but can yours do this?" Cid asked, twisting the center section of the staff.

The seven foot staff, with a series of clicking sounds compressed into a foot long rod which Cid handed, with holster, to Rinoa; his smirk pressing the cigarette up out of his mouth as she fixed the holster to her thigh and inserted the staff shifting her weight on her legs to get a feel for it.

"Now tell me your staff does that girl," Cid said confidently, despite his disheveled state, Aerith gave him a hug, kissing him on his now relatively clean forehead.

"I stand corrected."

Next he picked up two gauntlets with circular blades on them; he smiled as he fitted them. "These are also for you, something new I've been playing with for Soldier actually. Just have two prototypes but," he clenched his fist and the circular blade snapped in two and flipped to the front of the gauntlet. "Works just fine," he finished with a grin.

Rinoa took the second gauntlet and fitted it to her arm; Cid beckoned her over and gestured out to the armory. "Aim at something; hold out your arm and point."

She looked at him for a moment, then to her father who shrugged. She took aim at the chocobo armor, looking at Cid curiously.

"Flatten your hand."

She did, and yelped as the blade tore off from its place, attached by a chain and imbedded itself in the chest plate of the chocobo armor, everyone, including Rinoa stared in shock.

"Alright," Cid said nodding, "now curl your fingers."

She did, the chain snapped back rapidly and the blade pulled clean out of the armor like it was butter and retracted back to its original position above her forearm.

Laguna moved over to examine the armor, whistling at the gash, "at this rate, we might have to start making thicker armor, almost cut clean through."

"That's what that thing is for," Cid said, waving at the cone behind the group, Sora turned to eye it, wondering what a hollowed out cone with wheels could possible be used for in a battle.  
Cid looked a little sadly at the rest of the group, "now I hate to say this, but I've only got one more thing and it's for Cloud, Paine asked me to give it to him, she was going to use it, who knows how she intended to use seven swords at once, but she said he'd need it more."

"Hey, why do they get all the weapons and no one else?" Sora piped up indignantly, he'd been looking forward to trying one of the blade gauntlets that Rinoa and Aerith now sported.

Cid eyed him dubiously, "I'm not Santa Clause kid, get used to it. Besides, you've got that armor and your fancy keyblade so you can put some keyholes in some poor sap and then lock him up too."

Cid chuckled at his own joke, Laguna shook his head, "and this is why you promised your wife to stop drinking."

That earned him a nasty glare from Cid but he didn't say anything in response as he picked up a massive wrap and undid the rope holding it in place. The blade he unsheathed was bulkier than Cloud's previous sword and was shiny, which just seemed a bit silly to Sora. Cid reached up and pulled something that looked like a handle and _another _smaller blade came off, he flipped it around and handed it to Cloud who tested the weight curiously before handing it back.

Cid smirked, "this is the Hand of Seven, or at least that's what Paine called it, no clue what she wanted to do with it, but its yours now so have fun."

"I'll ask her," Cloud said, taking the whole apparatus from Cid and fitting it to the back of his armor where the typical multi-sheath awaited.

Zack eyed the weapon in amusement. "Well, at least you'll never have to worry about broken swords."

"Yeah no kidding," Leon said, "break it and that piece turns out to be another sword."

"It suits Cloud just fine then," Tifa said with a chuckle.

Cid looked like he might have more to say to them, but he frowned as he looked over their heads.

"What do you want you flying errand boy?"

Archimedes puffed up indignantly, perched as he was atop the chocobo armor; the coincidence had Sora trying to imagine Archie in a suit of armor cast for him.

"Pinfeathers, Madame Mim and Merlin need to see them, something has happened to Maleficent."

And without so much as a goodbye, the owl flew out of the armory with the group following hurriedly, even Cid seemed concerned.

Following Archimedes they made their way to the throne room, guards were posted outside and they'd braced their pikes against the doors. At first Sora didn't understand why, then something slammed into the doors and bright green flames leapt out from the partially opened door, followed by an enraged roar joined by two other distinct roaring howls of fury.

"What the hell was that?" Laguna asked.

"The Lady Maleficent," one of the guards managed to gasp as he tried to reassert his pike against the door. "She tried something, and went insane; Lord Merlin and Madame Mim are inside with her trying to calm her."

Another vicious blow struck the door, only this time the purple flame that was Mim's trademark spat forth, followed by a bloodied dragon's head which finally broke the guards' hold on the doorway, the men and women scrambled out of the way.

"Grandma," Namine and Kairi both yelled, the former actually ran towards the massive drake but Roxas grabbed her and dragged her back, with help from Laguna as she kicked and screamed, losing her composure for a change. The reason for stopping her was evident as a black clawed foot slammed down on the purple drake's throat. The injured dragon's eyes bulged painfully and it tried to turn and bite at the black dragon atop it but the black twisted out of the way and then sank its teeth into the purple's throat with a sickening crunch. The purple, far from dead, simply gazed blankly into space, twitching in agony as the black stepped out from the throne room and moved towards the newly arrived group.

"Get out of here!" Cid called to the scrambling guards, tossing his cigarette aside and reaching for something strapped to his leg, what he drew was what looked like the staff weapons he'd given to Rinoa and Aerith, but when it activated it was not only longer, it had a blade on one end and on the opposite was what looked like a weighted spike.

Laguna reached up behind him and drew his own weapon, the sword was pitiably small compared to the oncoming dragon but he stood his ground nonetheless.

"Cid, when was the last time you killed one of these things?"

"You remember that one crack-pot that lost his mind during the last war?"

"Yes."

"That was it."

Laguna winced, "okay so over twenty-years ago, great."

"Wait!" Aerith called, pushing past both of them and standing in front of the enraged wall of black scales.

"Aerith you dumb girl get outta the way!" Cid cried, he actually sounded desperate all of a sudden where just a moment before he'd been calm despite the towering inferno walking towards him.

Laguna stopped him from moving, "we can get to her if we need to, let her try."

"Like hell! That's one of my girls!" Cid tried to pull out of Laguna's grasp but the younger man held on tightly. "Let her try Cid, they all have to grow up sooner or later."

Sora realized then that Cloud, Leon, and Tifa, were holding a very distraught Zack, Tifa actually had a hand clamped over his mouth as a matter of fact. The image might have been comical if Zack's eyes didn't look so horrified.

Aerith looked up at the glowing green-yellow eyes as the drake eyed this tiny thing that was standing in front of it, "it's okay," she whispered, holding up her hand, careful to use the arm that didn't bear the bladed gauntlet. "You're hurting, it's alright, I'm sorry, come back to us, come back."

The dragon's eyes watched the hand carefully, moving forward and taking a sniff, its jaws opened wide, saliva dripping from between its teeth and boring head sized holes in the floor. Aerith turned her palm around and stroked the snot carefully as she crooned gently, humming some nameless tune. The dragon snapped half-heartedly for a moment before its eyes drooped, and finally closed. The black form collapsed in a fiery pillar and Maleficent fell into Aerith's arms, Leon and the others let Zack go and he rushed forwards, wrapping his arms around Aerith as she knelt down holding Maleficent's unconscious form.

"Don't ever do that again," he said, there were tears in his eyes.

Aerith just shook her head and kissed him tenderly. Meanwhile Namine, Kairi, and Rinoa had gone to Mim's limp form. The third big dragon, Merlin's blue had pulled her back inside the throne room to let the massive doors get free. He shifted back into his human form and beckoned Rinoa to him.

"Come come, no time to lose! We must get her stabilized or she could die."

"How tactful you old fool," squawked Archimedes as he settled atop Merlin's hat.

Merlin blinked, and looked at Namine and Kairi who were near tears themselves. "Oh, forgive me, I forget myself sometimes." He beckoned for Rinoa again, and then after a moment's thought he called over Kairi and Namine. "Here, we need to get her back into her human form."

There was a flash, and the dragon began to melt, and then reform into Mim's frail body, Merlin lifted her up gently and she opened an eye and looked at him reproachfully.

"You old goat, did you get her?"

"No, it seems one of Cid's girls is much more gifted than we thought." Merlin said as Mim pushed his spectacles back up his nose for him.

She turned over and reached out for Namine and Kairi with a shaking hand. "I'm fine girls, don't worry. Believe it or not, I've survived worse."

Archimedes gave a snort and ruffled his feathers, "pinfeathers! You're not as young as you were then!"

Mim scowled up at the owl but did not protest his judgment, but she did manage to smile reassuringly at the girls. Meanwhile the others were standing nearby, Laguna looked grim.

"Does anyone want to tell me how the council got reduced to two uninjured members?"

Merlin had laid Mim on the ground, leaving her injuries to Rinoa as he turned to Laguna with a sigh.

"Maleficent tried to teleport to the Lost Continent, the magical backlash drove her insane and she lost control. We are lucky that Aerith can apparently read and even manipulate emotions or we might have had to kill her."

Sora looked at Aerith, her hand was glowing as she held it over the still unconscious, and very bloody, Maleficent. She could read and control emotions? That just sounded…odd, but he was glad she could. Killing Maleficent, considering how much trouble Merlin and Mim had in even containing her did not sound like something he wanted to even attempt.

"So what," Cid said irately, "you wizards can't just poof us down there anymore to look for this kid we're supposed to find?"

Merlin shook his head, "there is some kind of barrier I'm afraid, it keeps magic from entering externally as Maleficent tried."

"Great, guess we do things the old fashioned way then, better for me if less magic's involved anyways."

"What about your airship," Roxas asked suddenly, "can't we fly?"

"Boy, if you can point out a time when I've had the opportunity to work on my poor baby in the last year I'd love to know about it. She's so banged up I wouldn't want to take her across a lake let alone an ocean, especially not the MediSea, we'd be a submersible in under ten seconds if a storm kicked up."

Roxas hadn't realized that Cid hadn't repaired the airship from the previous year, but he supposed that it made sense. Cid had been so busy running a country, he'd hardly had time to repair the Grace system and make sure similar machines had been distributed throughout the kingdom.

"So we take a boat then," Kadaj said, his arms crossed.

"Guess so," Leon said, "sounds like we're going to relieve our childhood."

Riku snorted and shook his head, "I think this is a little different than those little sail and row boats we had back in Destin Leon, and I don't think you can row to the Lost Continent."

Cloud looked over at Leon, "row?"

"So I wanted to prove that I could row the entire island chain, sue me, I had an ego." Leon said with shrug.

Tifa giggled at the look on Cloud's face, "uh oh, do I sense a competition?"

"Maybe later," Laguna said quietly as he surveyed the damage. "For now we need to make sure no one is dead, and figure out what to do while we wait on our esteemed council to get back on its feet. Then we can ship all of you off."


	6. Chapter 5

In the end, a steam galley was found with a willing enough captain to take the group to their destination. Few people were willing to sail to the Lost Continent; fewer still had the means to go there. Thankfully after a solid month of inquires and greased purses, a captain, ship, and crew were found who would be willing to take them. Captain Tobias Orion was a mountain of a man, he had a great mane of red hair and a beard to match and wherever he was, his long thin metal lined oak pipe was in attendance, clenched between his teeth, lit or unlit as far as Roxas had seen it never left his mouth except when he removed it to speak or light it anew. The rest of the crew were nothing spectacular, just what you'd expect of any seafaring crew, though Roxas had to assume they were a little crazier than most since they all knew to a man where they were going.

He stood on the deck, looking back at the receding shoreline thoughtfully and a little fretfully too. He'd never been on a ship, Cid's airship counted to a degree, but never like this. He looked over at Sora and Leon; they'd been born to this kind of thing. Growing up on a chain of islands basically meant that they had learned how to get from island to island via boat as soon as they could walk. So too, he had to remind himself, had Namine and Kairi. He had to get used to the constant rocking of the boat, and the balance required to navigate about the deck while said motion was under his feet. He felt a little strange after the morning's festivities, they'd had a bit of a send off as everyone had said goodbye to them. His mother and father had even come up to see them off, tearfully in his mother's case; his father had just looked grim but resolute.

As soon as the fog had lifted from the bay, the galley's engines had kicked in, and Captain Orion had bellowed for the sails to be drawn and the steam engines put to full. The gentle humming thrum of the engines had led their path out of the harbor and into the open waters. It would take a full day to reach the point where they could head south towards their true destination. They'd pass the Destiny Archipelago on their way, Roxas had to wonder what that would be like for his cousins, and for everyone else with him that had lived there.

"Hey," Sora's voice came at the same instant that he tackled Roxas, "what are you thinking?"

Roxas had to fight not to fall over, even as his cousin hung onto him like a monkey. "Get off! I just, well I've never been out in the ocean like this. I mean, yeah Twilight has a harbor nearby, but I never went out on a boat or anything like that."

"Fun isn't it?" Sora said with a grin.

"I guess," Roxas said reluctantly, feeling grateful that he hadn't had the problem that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo had. They'd been standing at the back of the ship heaving up their stomachs since this morning. It was strange that all three of them had the same issue, but they were triplets, so what was there to do?

"Are you worried about home?" Roxas asked quietly, looking back at the retreating shoreline.

Sora shook his head, "I think they'll be okay, don't you? I mean, sure the other kingdoms are stepping up their military, but with Sephiroth and Paine both out doing exercises with the Elites, no one would be stupid enough to try anything."

"I hope you're right, I want to have a home to come back too."

Now Sora frowned fretfully, following his cousin's gaze back to shore.

"Hey you two, come up here!" Kairi called from the prow of the ship, the boys looked at one another, then joined Kairi and Namine.

"Look," Kairi said excitedly, pointing over the side of the ship, "mantas."

Roxas had seen mantas before; the little shore bound creatures that fluttered away from anything that got too close. He expected the same and was surprised to see the size of these mantas. There were three of them, each eight feet across riding the wake around the front of the ship, sometimes ducking beneath it. They glided effortlessly in the current, like massive birds.

"I've never seen them like that." Roxas said in amazement.

Kairi, Sora, and Namine exchanged grins, "mainlander," they all said in unison.

Roxas flushed, "hey, don't gang up on me!"

"That one," Sora said, pointing to the manta that had just ducked under the ship again, "that's the leader, watch; the others will follow in a moment."

And sure enough, the others followed the first's movement exactly, moving from the left of the ship's prow to the right in the same motion that the first manta had used.

"Why are they following the ship?" Roxas asked, transfixed by the graceful creatures as they flitted beneath the waterline.

"Protection," Namine said, "they can't be seen from below when they're against the ship like that. Once they get near—" she paused and nodded as the mantas began to dive. "See? They've gotten to wherever they wanted to; we were just a safe ride."

"What're ye kids doin' up here eh?" Boomed Orion's voice, the foursome jumped at the sudden appearance and turned to face the barrel chested captain, he peered over the edge of the ship and smiled knowingly as the manta's vanished into the depths. "Manta's eh? That's good luck; they don't follow ships that carry ill omen. We'll 'ave smooth seas till we reach the pelagic."

Without another word he turned and stalked back across the deck, singing to himself in a deep bass voice.

"_Tomorrow, will take us away, far from home….."_

The tune faded as he moved off, but then Kairi picked up the tune; there were tears in her eyes, the Captain paused and turned to listen.

_"….no one will ever know our names, but the seas they will remain."_

She drifted off and Roxas thought that would be the end of it, but then Sora started singing too:

_"In my heart and in my dreams, these seas they will remain, these waters of wind and wave," _Namine joined in now, and Kairi began singing once more, _"and storms come close your eyes. They all will remain, for men and beast and all beyond, the seas will remain."_

The Captain had stopped and turned to eye the trio as they sang, Roxas felt like an idiot for not knowing the words, he'd never even heard the song, and yet all three of them seemed to know it by heart.

Now the Captain joined them, his voice softer now, a smile on his weathered features as he held his pipe in one hand.

_"Come what may, come what will, a seaman's life is given. No matter where, no matter when, the seas they shall remain, for tomorrow, will take us away, far from home, no one will ever know our names, but the seas will remain."_

The tune drifted off into silence, Kairi swallowed nervously and Sora put an arm around her. Namine looked pained too, so Roxas mimicked the gesture, pulling her close, but there was something he was missing here, something essential which he wasn't a part of.

Orion had rejoined them, his pipe clamped in his jaw as he eyed them, "ye've all got a mighty fine voice there, I'll be 'avin' more o' that before this journey's done. Ye know much more?"

Kairi let go of Sora, but he held onto her as she nodded; "our parents were fishermen. Father taught us a lot about the sea and the songs before he died."

At the mention of her father's death, Captain Orion's face truly softened and he took his pipe out from between his lips and removed his broad hat as he recited a new verse:

_"For all that is, and all that was, I give myself to thee. Be ye cruel or be ye kind, my ever loving sea."_

Namine's eyes shut against silent tears and Roxas felt her shudder, he had no idea what was going on really. Just that it had something to do with her father; he wrapped his arms around her tightly, and felt her return the gesture. He looked over at Sora, for a change asking his cousin for help, Sora's eyes told him that he was doing the right thing already, and there was nothing more to be done.

Orion put a massive hand on the girls' shoulders, nodding solemnly. "Yer father be a good man, and at peace to have such good girls as his."

He turned to Sora, "and yer parents be just as proud no doubt, take good care of your lass, and she'll be like the sea to ye." His gaze swept over Roxas appraisingly, his expression stern. "Ye boyo, might be a mainlander, but ye've got a good heart I ken see that. Take care of what ye've got, she be a wondrous thing."

Without a word more, the Captain stalked off, humming a new tune now though he sang no words to accompany it as he puffed away much like the steam engines of the boat.

Kairi smiled and shook her head her tears drying some, pursing her lips as she and Namine put words to the tune:

_"Mother don't miss me, don't rattle or frisk me, for if I've gone just sing the song of my last night along the shore."_

Roxas heard the Captain chuckling, the first real sign of mirth he'd seen the man give since their arrival on board his ship. He'd never given it much thought, but there was an entire culture that he was missing out on, and all of it, or at least a great portion of it, must have had such immense influence on Namine's life. He had to know more of it; he wanted to be able to do for her, what Sora had done for Kairi just moments before.

"A toast, a toast I say!" Cried the crew's resident idiot, Teed Yevin, he was standing up on the dining table and turning in a circle, addressing everyone there. Captain Orion didn't particularly seem to mind as the man continued.

"I say a toast to all ourselves and our mates, for we are on voyage less taken to a land less known. We'll be lucky if we see the dawn for the shores are never shown!"

There was a lot of laughter from the crew, this time though, Roxas wasn't alone in his bewilderment as his friends all remained silent, though they smiled nonetheless at the merriment.

The Captain, despite having drunk what had to have been Roxas' weight in alcohol jumped to his feet and with a booming voice began to sing:

_"There was a valiant ship from the Old Kingdom proud,"_

The crew answered merrily, and Roxas noticed that Leon, Riku, Sora, Namine, and Kairi all joined in, the others looked just as confused and lost as he did:

_"Blow high, blow low, and so sailed we!"_

Orion's voice boomed again:

_"She sailed across the world, sailing down across the winds of the high, bold sea!"_

_"There was naught that she could conquer a down upon her lee; she sailed along the winds of the high, bold sea!"_

Sora, who unlike the others, had actually taken the offered grog, jumped up on his portion of the bench, much like Yeven had:

_"But then the mighty Kraken arose from the deep, rising up from the cold, dark sea!"_

_"For quarter for quarter the gallant vessel cried," _the crew sang to him, and he answered: _"But the answer that it gave her, it sank her in the sea, sailing down across the winds of the high, bold sea!"_

The song sounded a bit cruel to Roxas, but the crew burst out in gales of laughter as Sora grinned from ear to ear, Yeven took off his tricorn and gave a bow to Sora and handing him his ale, applauded. Roxas caught Leon shaking his head as Sora actually downed the offered drink. What on earth had his cousins done on the islands…for that matter, what had his Aunt and Uncle let them do?

"A'right you louts!" Shouted Orion, "we 'ave with us 'ere some seaman's kin whose parents have gone to join the waves, what say we send them our best eh?"

There was a cheer and after a pause, it was as if the whole crew was harmonizing in the silence, they began singing:

_"Five times round the sailors bend, there ain't no stop there ain't end, sail 'em high and sail 'em low, it don't really matter how they row, just tell them that ye love them so! Oh tell them so oh tell them so away as they row! Oh tell them so that they know oh how much ye love them so!"_

The singing continued well into the night, and when it finally ended, even Roxas had been given a drink, though he handled it horribly, which had provided cause for even more laughter, Cloud had gotten himself into a drinking contest with one of the crew by that point and had lost miserably, going off to sulk somewhere. Tifa had gone after him to comfort him; strangely he turned into a real baby when drunk. Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo had taken it upon themselves to start a game of cards called Three Dead Men, with three of the crew, and by game's end had a small fortune much to the shock of their competitors who had been sworn up and down as the best players aboard. Everyone else, even Leon, was having a good time. Zack and Aerith had retired early, before the heavy drinking, but Roxas had seen Zack sneak off a bottle of one of the lighter drinks.

Roxas was finally able to escape with Namine after that, and they made their way out onto the deck, the cool night breeze blowing in their faces. For Roxas it was a great comfort, his head still buzzed from the single drink he'd had.

"So you spent your days on the islands like that?"

Namine flushed in the moonlight, "no, it was the nights. When the sailors came home for the night to their families, they'd meet in the taverns and inns and sing. It wasn't unusual for the children to be there."

Roxas frowned, "but Sora and Leon, their parents weren't seamen."

"No, but Riku's and my parents were, so they were there as friends. It was a communal gathering each night." She looked at him, her face shining with remembered embarrassment. "I had my first drink when I was six; my mother wrung my father's neck when she saw him giving me his ale."

She trailed off at the memories, "Auron used to compete with the sailors, to see who could drink the most. He wasn't a sailor, but he drank like one. Leon used to mimic him; not that he had much success then, but now I bet he could out-drink a lot of the people here."

"Leon could? He barely touched his drink." Roxas said, recalling the way Leon had eyed Sora when his little brother had taken the drinks offered him.

Namine sighed, nodding, "a lot changed when Auron left, people felt his family's sadness, the gatherings became less cheerful…and then the storm came….everything changed for us. The songs stopped, we lost everything and moved to the mainland, the first few years were so strange for us. Being out here on the sea, with the crew, it feels so much like home that it hurts."

Roxas put his arm around Namine, she leaned against him, her voice a whisper. "One day, I want to take you to where I was born Roxas, and show you all of this."

"I'd love to see it," he whispered back, she looked up at him for a moment, and then they kissed and forgot themselves in the night.

Author's Note: Yes, I considered using Jack Sparrow or Barbossa for the role of the captain, but neither of them really felt right aboard a steam vessel, so Tobias Orion was born, and I like him the most of the choices I ran through my head. For those that are wondering, yes, I did use actual sea shanties, repurposing them for this, I couldn't help myself! I love the sea and its songs!


	7. Chapter 6

Sora eyes flickered open, where was he? The last thing he remembered was Leon picking him up from the table, hadn't he been taken to the cabin he shared with Roxas? What was he doing on the floor?

"Sora," He looked up, Riku was kneeling over him, concern etched on his features. "I think we need to get up."

Sora pushed himself up and looked around, there was nothing around them, not the boat, not the sea, and even the sky was missing. They just seemed to be sitting on flat plain of some sort. Then he saw the others, lying much as he had been a moment ago. He scrambled to his feet, grabbing Kairi and turning her over. She moaned a little, and then opened her eyes, smiling at him.

"Hey, am I dreaming?"

"I think we all are," Riku said as he prodded Roxas with his foot.

Roxas groaned and groggily got to his knees, "what the—where are we?"

"The heart…."

They all turned towards Namine, she was sitting upright now and looking around them in confusion, frowning.

"It wants something from us…or it wants to give something to us…I'm not sure I can't understand."

Roxas moved over to her, putting an arm around her waist and helping her to her feet, when the group was all standing there was a crackling sound. They turned and watched as the plain began to shatter in a rippling wave moving towards them. There was no time to run, their footing buckled and they dropped like stones into blackness. Sora held onto Kairi tightly, he couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed in the darkness. It struck him as a little weird that something as bright as the heart always had so much shadow in it. Then he saw a light below them, they were falling towards it and he cringed as they drew near because they seemed like they'd all collide with it head first. Then their headlong fall slowed, and they shifted slightly, moving like they were immersed in water, rotating so that their feet touched down on this new plain of light.

"Good," whispered a voice, the five of them looked around curiously but saw no one, "you've all arrived, very good."

There was a shaking, and Sora felt Kairi grip him again. He fully expected the flooring to shatter again and drop them somewhere else. Instead though, five pillars rose up from the ground, breaking through the plain before allowing it to reform and settling.

"Give yourselves time to think of whom you are, what you are. I know what you intend, even if you do not fully understand. You go to find one who is lost, but there is a greater event at hand than you can comprehend. I give to you the strength to conquer this challenge, even as you are unaware of it."

"What are you talking about?" Roxas asked, he hadn't expected an answer, so when none was forthcoming he wasn't surprised.

Riku was staring at the nearest pillar to him, he cast his hand out and his keyblade snapped into being. He approached the pillar and stabbed the blade into the pillar, the pillar crumbled around him and a red sphere floated in its remnants. He reached out and took it, and turning it over in his hand as he examined it.

"Power," whispered the voice, "the power to stand strong against any foe and conquer all, but at the expense of companionship, you choose to face this world in solitude so that those you care for are protected."

Riku didn't say anything, but Sora saw his fist clench tightly around the sphere, Sora looked over at Roxas who was standing a short distance away, they nodded to each other and both of them picked a pillar and followed Riku's example, summoning their blades and destroying the pillars, a blue orb floated up from the rubble for Roxas, and a gold orb for Sora. They each reached out and took their orbs, and the voice came again.

"Bravery, the courage to stand against all whether locked hand in hand with those you love, or by yourself. You will never surrender anyone to your foes, even if it means giving everything you are for their sake. Nothing can shatter you."

There was a pause, and then it came again, "loyalty, you will stand by those you care for, even when you doubt all around you and your world crumbles. You believe in the hearts of your friends even if you do not believe in your own. Their union, is your strength, use it wisely."

Kairi had gone to her pillar now, and it too crumbled and revealed an orb, this one a soft glowing orange, she took it and the voice spoke.

"Compassion, the ability to sympathize and soothe those around you and calm their fears and worries; you bear a great task because you are the hope of those around you and if you are seen to falter, their faith will wane. Do not fear though, for they will all come for you in the end, no matter how lost you may feel."

Namine's orb was a brilliant green, she took it silently, studying it much the way Riku had, "wisdom, the foresight and knowledge to see that which is as yet unseen and what others cannot perceive. It brings you great calm as it does turmoil, you will know things that no other can understand. You will feel burdened by your strength, and yet if you allow it, others will help you regardless of your fear of rejection."

Roxas and Namine both exchanged glances, she looked fearful, Kairi was looking at her sister in confusion and Roxas was pretty sure he knew why. No one beyond himself or Mim knew. Namine had never spoken of what it felt like to hide it from her twin sister, and Roxas had never pushed the matter but he had to wonder now, what did she feel whenever she looked at Kairi and realized she was hiding herself from her other half? Any further thoughts were scattered by a bone chilling scream from Riku, everyone turned, wide eyed as they saw why he'd called out: his orb had shattered and its shards were imbedded in his hand, there was no blood, but crimson veins were coursing through his arm and moving up towards his shoulder and the rest of his body.

Sora and Kairi moved to help, but then their orbs shattered as well and they too felt the excruciating pain, Roxas looked down at his orb in horror as he heard a crack, and then felt stabbing pain as his sphere broke apart. The blue shards dug into his hand and blue veins crept up his arm, he twisted and writhed in agony as he collapsed to the floor. What was happening to them?

He felt someone grab his hand, and thought it would be Namine, but it wasn't. Sora's free and undamaged hand had wrapped around his and was holding it tight. There were tears in Sora's eyes as he gritted his teeth and pulled his cousin close. Roxas managed to catch a glimpse of Namine and Kairi, they'd gotten to Riku and the three of them were curled up in much the same manner as he and Sora were. The veins made their way up Sora's neck as he watched and he watched as the gold lines etched their way across his face and into his eyes, turning Sora's eyes a bright gold, he could only imagine that he must look the same, only blue.

"As I told you before," the voice echoed, "there can be no light in this world without shadow. Even this power comes at a cost, you are my bearers, and your destinies are bound to me as I am bound to yours. I hope that you can stand against the storm."

There was a low rumble, and an unearthly green-blue glow covered the area, Roxas raised his head despite the agony he was feeling and felt his heart scream in terror even if his lips could not, then everything went black, the only sensation he had was of Sora's hand wrapped around his and the feeling of warmth that came with it.

Sora woke in a cold sweat, gasping for breath, across the room from him he could hear Roxas panting as well in the darkness. Everything was hurting; he could barely move his limbs but he managed to roll out of his bunk, no mean feat considering the rail that was in place specifically to prevent you from falling out in rough weather. He hit the floor hard, thankfully on his side and despite the pain managed to half crawl, half drag himself to Roxas' bed; he reached a quivering hand up and gripped the rail, groaning in pain. It felt as if his entire body was an icy inferno, at once burning and freezing, he could feel his grip on the rail slackening with the pain, but then Roxas' hand grasped his and pulled him upwards, he was in so much pain but he forced himself to focus on Roxas' hand as his cousin helped him up. They didn't say anything, both of them curled around each other in agony, giving no thought to anything else as the pain coursed through their bodies.

Sora thought of the dream, of what had happened in it, and what he'd seen at the very end. He had no idea what the heart had shown them, but it was something that was even more frightening than Heartless had been when he'd first seen them. That skeletal, almost mechanical form, lit by that sickening glow; what had that been? And why was the heart forcing them through this? In that moment, wrapped up in bed with Roxas, he felt a burning anger towards the heart for using them as it saw fit, what had any of them done to deserve this? Then he remembered what the heart had said of Riku and his own heart cried out as he realized that while he had Roxas, and Namine and Kairi would have each other, Riku would be enduring all this alone. The thought fueled his feeling of resentment and he wished with all his heart that he could share the comfort that hanging onto Roxas was giving him with Riku.

Even as he had the thought, a new wave of pain, worse than the last, washed over him and his vision was obliterated by the agonizing spike. Then something happened, through his darkening vision he saw a silvery hand lay something warm and familiar over Roxas and himself, the last thing he felt as his vision of Roxas' clenched features was a hand, running through his hair gently as his mind lost itself to the darkness to escape the pain.

Roxas woke up with a start, why was he so sore? He blinked blearily and stared as he realized that Sora was sleeping next to him, he gave his cousin a shove and pushed him over the rail and onto the floor.

"Ow!" Sora cried indignantly, rubbing his head and looking around in an equally bleary fashion. "What was that for?"

"What were you doing in my bed?" Roxas demanded in annoyance, then he noticed that he had Auron's coat draped over him and he frowned.

"Did you put this on me?"

"No, it was hanging on the door," Sora said in bewilderment, he frowned, trying to think. "I feel like something happened last night…was there a storm?"

"I—" Roxas paused and scowled, "I don't know actually, I must have slept pretty hard."

"Well you didn't exactly handle that drink very well," Sora said with a grin.

"So I'm not an alcoholic, sue me!" Roxas said, glowering at his couin.

"Hey! I'm not an alcoholic!" Sora protested.

The argument might have continued but a knock at the door caught their attention.

"What?" They called in unison.

"If you're done cheating on your girlfriends, it's almost noon." Cloud's voice came stoically from the other side of the door. There was a thud, "ow…what?"

"Jerk," Tifa said as she opened the door, smiling brightly at the boys. "Come on guys, I saved some breakfast for you guys and the other late risers."

"Other late risers," Roxas asked curiously.

"Yeah, seems all of you slept in," Cloud said, leaning against the door jam. "Aerith went to wake up Namine and Kairi, Loz is getting Riku up. Did you guys have a party last night without the rest of us?"

Roxas and Sora exchanged confused glances, just what had they done last night?

"I don't know," they both said, once more in unison, causing them to scowl at one another as Tifa giggled.

"They're cute when they first wake up," she said with a smile.

"You should have seen them at home before Leon and I left, I think they were harboring some serious feelings there."

"Yes," Tifa said dubiously, though she was smiling. "You've shown me some of the pictures, I'm sure you and Leon played some mean tricks on them."

The boys got dressed, no one was wearing the heavy armor in the bright sun, especially when there was no risk of being attacked, after all, what could attack them out on the ocean aside from another ship? And with no other kingdom at war with them, there was little worry of that. As their group made their way through the decks of the ship, they passed members of the crew milling about seemingly without a care; they reached the main deck and found a large grille set up with remnants of what smelled like fish. There were a few plates left that bore food though. Roxas and Sora set about eating out in the salty air with a vengeance. They were joined shortly by Namine, Kairi, and Riku; over the course of breakfast they all asked each other the same questions: What had they done last night? Why were they all sore? So on and so forth, none of them had any answers, so eventually they simply stopped asking each other the questions and ate.

Above their heads, the galley's six massive masts had been raised above their casings and the wind was blowing the ship along in a leisurely manner. Captain Orion came strolling around the deck, his pipe smoking like a steam stack despite the heat of the day as he watched the rigging carefully.

He spied the assembled group and nodded approvingly. "Ye'd better eat it while we've got it. Some of the fishermen told me that there's scarce in the manner of fish where we're 'eaded."

With that he bustled along, bellowing out an order or two as he went to some of the crew that were aloft, mostly telling them to watch their footing since they all knew their jobs.

"He's pretty cheerful all things considered," Riku said.

"You mean about our destination?" Roxas asked.

Riku nodded, Roxas could understand what he meant, no ships had gotten within sighting distance of the Lost Continent and returned in the past several centuries. Orion had to know that, but even when he'd been told where they'd be going, he'd merely laughed and said he'd take what was given to him. Roxas imagined he had a very strong and powerful heart….the image of a large bear appeared in his mind and he smiled, upon explaining the image of the Captain as a bear, the others laughed too.

Author's Note: Am I getting meaner to my characters…well actually I guess not since I haven't killed anyone this time. Also, I just changed shirts because the black long sleeves was a bit much in this heat, and my chest is bleeding…not entirely sure why, but there's a gash right in the center of my chest with a lot of blood. Very odd eh? For those that are wondering about the ship, basically it's a steam ship built along the lines of a large, low galley, but when there's a good wind or its too damned hot to work the engines, six masts, four amidships (two port, two starboard) and one fore and the final aft; are raised from the deck and rigged with sails to provide locomotion. I got the idea from the steam clippers of the 19th century so you can go look that up on wikipedia if you want to see the basic principle…granted none of those ships have retractable masts of course and are also much lower and thinner than my ship design would be.


	8. Chapter 7

Sora sat thoughtfully on the prow of the ship with the scraps of what had been breakfast. Several rinax, small flying reptiles, hovered and hopped around him, sometimes alighting on the deck to peck at the scraps of meat he held out to them. The curious birdlike reptiles chattered and cackled at each other in their competition for food. Sora did his best to make sure they all got some of it; it was rather funny how unafraid of him they were, so it was a bit surprising when Leon came over then and they flapped away crying indignantly.

Sora looked up at his brother, "hey Leon."

Leon snorted, pushing Sora gently. "That's all I get for coming out here in the blazing sun to see what you were up to?"

Sora grinned, he was shirtless at the moment, just wearing his shorts, it was certainly hot enough for that. "I was just thinking."

"What about," Leon asked curiously, taking a dropped piece of food and holding it up, one of the rinax hovered over his hand, before its toothed beak darted down and plucked the food from his palm.

"It's just, last night, I think something important happened, but I don't know what it was…and I think it happened to the others too, only they don't remember it either."

"The other's being Kairi so on and so forth?"

Sora nodded, "we all woke up sore, but don't remember why. Roxas and I were asleep in the same bed even thou—stop looking at me like that!"

Sora shoved his brother who started laughing at the indignant look on his little brother's face. "Sorry, that just brought up a lot of memories. Fun times back home."

"Which one," Sora asked, then winced, "sorry?"

Leon shrugged, "its okay, we do have two homes after all. We might actually have three at this rate considering what each of us has in Hollow Bastion."

Sora eyed the rinax that was sitting in front of him, watching him eagerly, he spread his hands apologetically, "sorry, all out."

The rinax leaned forwards and sniffed his empty palms for a moment before chirping indignantly and flying away. Sora continued to look out over the prow of the ship quietly.

"I think the heart is using us for something Leon."

"Because all five bearers are having amnesia and waking up sore," Leon said with a slight smile. "You could just be worrying too much Sora, the heart didn't send us on this quest. People did."

Sora recalled the gaze Yen Sid had cast had him and how strange that gaze had felt, how compelling. "I don't know…ow!"

He rubbed his head where Leon had cuffed him gently, "stop worrying about it, you'll make yourself nutty."

"Okay, I guess you're right, in a way I suppose this is one big vacation right?"

Leon chuckled, "yep, to a continent that no one has been to in a few centuries, but no worries."

They sat there quietly for a moment longer before Sora opened his mouth, he was forestalled from saying anything when something bumped the boat, and instinctively he grabbed the nearest bit of rigging so he wouldn't fall off the narrow bit of deck he was sitting on.

Leon leaned over and looked over the edge of the ship. "What the hell is that?"

Sora leaned over as well and felt his heart leap as a massive snout breached the water's surface and a blast of warm air shot up towards him, spraying salty water everywhere. They continued to watch as the rest of the massive form came up, thankfully not directly beneath the ship. The pliodon breached the water's surface and began floating alongside the leisurely sailing ship, one yellow eye the size of a human head was fixed on the boat and its occupants.

"I'm glad that's not a predatory one, its huge." Leon murmured.

Sora nodded dumbly, the boat was one hundred-twenty feet long, and the pliodon was at least two thirds that length. As he watched the giant reptile floating lazily alongside the ship though, a thought came to mind and he smiled.

Leon saw the look on his face and groaned, "you can't be serious."

Sora continued smiling, "come on," he reached down and shucked his shorts, now standing only in his boxers. "It isn't like they eat people."

"Sora, Dad could have stood up in its mouth, I don't think it matters if it eats people or not."

"Chicken, how many times in a lifetime do you get to do this?" Sora said, and stepped off the ship without waiting for the answer; Leon closed his eyes and waited for the splash, shaking his head.

"Oiy! 'ere now, is that lad daft? That brute'll 'ave 'im drawn and quartered inside of a minute!"

Captain Orion looked over the side of the ship and harrumphed considerably, shaking his own head, which was a bit more impressive considering the mass of hair that hung around it. Leon looked over the deck, he wasn't as scared as he could be, he actually trusted Sora's ability to get a feel for animals…of course swimming with eighty-some foot pliodons was not one of his favorite examples of this, though he supposed he should have expected it as soon as they stepped on the ship. A crowd had developed now and everyone was murmuring as they searched for Sora to reappear somewhere, anywhere really, near the pilodon. The massive reptile gave a sudden snort, and opened its mouth wide, grunting in annoyance as it showed the massive, ripped cheeks that it filtered its meals through. Sora was hanging onto the flipper closest to the ship, and the piodon had noticed though it didn't seem to care as it eyed the minute human attached to it.

As everyone watched, Sora clambered up the fin to the back of the sea reptile as it continued to cruise alongside the ship. The crew was thunderstruck, no one in their right mind would attempt this, and some began wondering if anyone had spiked the poor boy's drink the night before.

Sora waved up at them, sea water dripping from his hair. "Hey! Come on, she doesn't mind!"

"She?" Kadaj asked dubiously, looking at Leon, who just shrugged. He didn't want to know how Sora knew what gender it was.

Then there was the sound of running footsteps, and everyone turned to see Riku, clad, or not, in the same manner as Sora, jump off the deck and clear the pliodon to land in the water on the opposite side.

"Show off," mutter Loz in annoyance, though he was smiling.

"Okay, we have two crazies in the water with that thing, anyone else want to go?" Yazoo asked sarcastically.

There was a collective 'no' from everyone as they watched Riku and Sora begin wrestling on the back of the pliodon, the creature chuffed and bounced its head up and down in the water, Leon hoped it wasn't going to throw Sora and Riku, he didn't want to imagine what it could do if it decided the two idiots on its back were annoying.

Sora accepted the offered towel, grinning from ear to ear. "That was amazing; I hope I get to do that again."

Leon and Cloud exchanged glances, and then both smacked him on the back of the head.

"Dumb ass," Cloud said, shaking his head.

Kairi pushed her way to the front and wrapped her arms around Sora. "You big idiot, you're going to kill me."

Sora put his arms around her, smiling slightly, "sorry, want to come next time?"

She cuffed him on the side of the head, and then just kissed him to keep him from saying anything else equally stupid.

"What I don't get," Zack said, "is how you knew it'd be safe."

Sora broke the kiss reluctantly and looked up, "simple, she'd just been feeding somewhere, she was resting. Even if it was one of the predatory ones, she wouldn't have done anything."

"To our new madmen and their antics, may they live long and save us all the theatrics."

With that, Teed offered large mugs of what smelled like liquor loaded cocoa. Both Sora and Riku took the offered mugs and downed them happily Sora a little too eagerly.

Aerith leaned against Zack, smiling fondly at Sora, she whispered something to Zack, and he scowled. "Oh no, if we have a kid, I don't want him doing anything like that!"

She smiled, kissing him tenderly, "I never said you'd get a choice."

"Cloud, Leon, any tips?" Zack asked pleadingly.

"Glue, lots of glue" Cloud said pausing as he considered before adding; "and a chair with no wheels in a padded room."

"You're horrible," Tifa said, leaning over his shoulder and poking him in the ribs.

Riku grappled Sora in a headlock, knuckling his head, "you're going to get us both killed you know that?"

"H-hey!" Sora said indignantly, shoving Riku off of him, "you didn't have to come too."

"Yeah, but I'm not going to wait around and let you have all the fun."

Everyone laughed, near the back of the group, Roxas was standing with Namine. "I'll never get how he figures that he can do that and get away with it."

Namine smiled, "well he is bravery."

Roxas blinked, his head hurting suddenly. He put his palms against his fingers and winced. "Owww…what was that?"

Namine's smile flickered a little, "must be some remnant of the soreness from this morning."

Roxas frowned, no, he didn't think it was, but he didn't know why. "I guess," he murmured haltingly, Namine put her hand in his.

"Don't worry about it; I'm sure it will pass."

He nodded, but somehow he felt like she was once again, not telling him something that he'd really rather she shared with him.

Later that afternoon, Sora found Roxas in the Captain's study going over texts and books with Namine. He sat down next to them, looking at what they were reading curiously.

"'History of the Lost Continent,' 'The Ancient Civilizations of the World,' 'Strange Sightings in the South.' what are you two doing exactly?"

Namine shrugged, "the Captain said we could use his personal library, he actually had quite a lot of books. We're trying to learn as much as we can about the continent as possible before we land there."

"What have you figured out?" Sora asked curiously.

"Not a lot," Roxas said with a frown, "there's no actual record of what happened, just rumors and myths. It's barely more specific than our classroom sessions on the subject. They all say the same thing: there was a hyper-advanced civilization that prospered on the continent some hundreds of years ago, and then one day, everything just stopped. There was no more communication with the continent, and any attempts to establish contact either vanished or were never responded to."

"So…its like a ghost ship, only on a continental scale."

Namine and Roxas exchanged glances before smiling, "I guess, the former said. What I don't understand is why Ansem's sister would choose her of all places to bring her son."

"She probably wanted to be away from all the court intrigue and backstabbing, considering what she'd just been through. I mean she was used to start a war right?"

Sora nodded, "yeah, the War of Succession, Dad fought in that war. I don't know what he did in it though."

"Its too bad he couldn't be here, he seemed to know the King personally he might have had some insight." Roxas said quietly.

Sora smiled slightly, Namine nudged Roxas and frowned. "Sorry Sora, that wasn't very considerate of me," he said suddenly, reaching across the table and holding his cousin's arm.

Sora didn't respond, instead wandering over to the bookcase and examining the books it contained, he came back with a volume on so called 'Sea Monsters.'

Roxas snorted, "why am I not surprised?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that you have a passion," Namine said sweetly.

"I think, if we ever finish school, I want to try opening up some kind of zoo or something." Sora said thoughtfully, flipping through the first few pages before pausing.

"You're joking right? You running a zoo, Sora you can barely run your own wallet." Roxas stated flatly.

"Well you're not much better, and you and I both know that Hayner tends to spend our money more than we do."

Roxas nodded in exasperation, yes, Hayner did tend to spend other's hard earned cash instead of earning it himself. It was one of his more obnoxious qualities.

"Wow," Sora said excitedly, flipping the book around and pointing to a picture of a massive black and brown snake that was eating an equally large boar-like animal. "These things apparently live where we're going."

Roxas and Namine exchanged worried glances, neither of them feeling as enthusiastic about giant snakes as Sora sounded.


	9. Chapter 8

Author's Note: A few people have asked me about the pliodon species and since I don't think I can adequately describe them here, I'll be lazy and do this: go to any search engine and type in 'pliosaur' and look at the images you get. That will give you an idea of the archetype for my critters. Of course I am operating on the assumption that the group evolved and thrived to the point of domination. So you have the massive filter feeders like the one Sora decided to climb on that operate on the principle of several whale species and the Whale Shark, and you also have smaller (and I use the term loosely) more active predators that would be akin to Orcas or Great Whites.

Sora woke not from the crashing and grating sounds that echoed through the shit, he woke up when his spine collided with the bed railing. He blinked and climbed out of the bed, even as the deck heaved beneath his feet, it caused him to walk bow legged, placing his feet broadly as he made his way towards the door, careful not to wake Roxas who was still sleeping soundly somehow. He opened the door on an up swell and was pitched out of the cabin and into the hall where he collided rather embarrassingly against the opposite wall and nearly fell back into the cabin on the down swell; he was able to catch himself though and made his way along the railing lining the walls towards the pilothouse. In the narrow stairwell he passed a member of the crew who looked at him as if to tell him that he needed to be back in his cabin but the man opted to say nothing instead.

When he reached the pilothouse he found Captain Orion, his signature pipe clenched in his teeth, gripping the wheel as the ship tossed violently in the seas.

"Ah, good mornin' boy," he eyed the clock resting beneath him besides the compass, "well I suppose it ain't quite dawn yet, but good mornin' as sure as ever."

Despite the tempest the ship was caught in, the Captain looked quite pleased, as if he didn't have a care in the world for what the ocean chose to challenge him with. Sora looked out warily at the waves rolling over the ship; the masts had been lowered into their recesses in the hull to prevent damage against the wind and waves leaving the deckhouse and deck clear of everything and everyone. It looking strange given that the deck was normally a bustle with activity in calmer seas, though considering that every so often a wave would wash clear over from one side of the ship to the other, Sora understood why no one dared leave the sealed deckhouse.

"'ere boy, take the wheel if ye like."

Sora blinked in surprise and looked up at the Captain, was he serious? When Orion just kept staring at him expectantly Sora decided he was and stepped to the wheel, firmly gripped in the Captain's massive hands. Sora mimed the grip and the Captain let go, immediately Sora was jerked from one side to the other as the ship was yanked back and forth in the swells.

"Easy boy, it isn't as easy as ye thought eh? Just hang on tight and go with 'er motions. Ye'll get the ropes soon enough."

Sora reasserted control over the errant wheel and did as the Captain advised, following the motions of the ship as it rode the waves. Though he still had to fight for control at times, there was a noticeable ease in the action. He grinned broadly, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, Namine was standing in the stairwell, watching him intently.

"Mornin' Lass," boomed the Captain over the crash of the waves. "Beautiful thing isn't she?"

She nodded, though she didn't say anything as she turned to look out of the aft windows of the pilothouse silently, her eyes focused distantly and her face set grimly. Sora stole a glance and his eyes widened at the massive wall of water coming towards the ship. The Captain turned as well and uttered a plethora of oaths that Sora had never heard in his life, taking the wheel and guiding the ship to run along the running wave.

Namine turned to face Sora as the wave approached, smiling tightly. "Don't worry, I'm here."

Sora didn't have the slightest idea what she was talking about, and at the moment he was too focused on the wave as it crashed over the after portion of the ship and cascaded in a rippling torrent over the pilot house. The glass shattered and the water hit Sora's chest like a hammer; he felt himself lifted off the deck and thrown against the fore of the pilothouse, the glass there shattered as well. It seemed like a dream almost, as he was swept out over the deckhouse, onto the deck, where he collided with the siding and was then tossed over into the frothing water. It all seemed so surreal, even as he looked up at the fading light at the surface and fought to reach for it. The current continued to pull him downwards, half-remembered memories of something like this; years before, and the scar across Leon's face. His body froze at the memories and he began to panic, his lungs burning for lack of oxygen as he kicked desperately upwards, the effort was fruitless however, he could feel the undertow dragging him deeper.

He saw a vague shape fall into the water, piercing it like an arrow, and then a green flash. Something propelled itself towards him, and he felt hard, cold, what almost felt like glass, grip him as a vague figure wrapped its arms around him and with another burst of speed shot upwards. They burst from the water like a caster shot, and alighted on the deck, the armored figure set Sora down, emerald green armor glowing faintly even in the darkness. He choked for air, coughing up water as he did so, another wave crashed onto the deck, but the armored figure held him tightly until the wave had washed over them. When it had passed, they made their way to the deckhouse, twisting the lock mechanism open before ducking inside and clamping it shut again. Once there, Sora really had a chance to get a good look at his savior. The armor was some kind of plate, but it looked almost like glass or crystal, and it covered everything. There was not one bit of skin showing, not even a lock of hair.

"Who—who are you?" He managed, still coughing from the salt water he'd ingested.

The armored figure turned, and Sora assumed they were looking at him now, "I told you not to worry."

The armor seemed to melt away in a bright green torrent, almost like half-liquid foam as it retracted from across the individual's body; it finally coalesced in a bright green light in the right hand before the light vanished and the misty-foam with it. Sora stared dumbstruck as Namine stood before him, smiling slightly.

"Namine," he said in shock, his eyes asking the questions his mind wasn't.

"Don't worry, it is me, you'll find your gift soon enough I imagine." She patted him on the shoulder gently as she walked past, "don't tell anyone please? I don't want to scare them."

"Wait, what did you mean my gift?" He asked suddenly, turning on her as she walked away, wincing from a spike of pain in his head as he did so.

She smiled enigmatically as she walked down the hall towards her cabin. "Get some sleep Bravery, you'll figure it out."

Sora was left, drenched, dripping, standing in a pool water expanding water staring at the Namine as she turned the corner and headed towards her cabin. What had just happened? When he finally went to his cabin and crawled back to bed, he dreamt of a gold suit of armor stepping out of a blinding light, pointing towards him and then grabbing his throat before fusing into his body. When he woke from the dream, he was just as confused as he'd been when he'd fallen asleep, and even more certain that the heart wasn't telling them something.

Later, at a more reasonable hour of the morning everyone gathered in the galley, the Captain had been set to tell everyone that Namine and Sora had drowned when the wave had hit; he'd come down from the pilothouse to join breakfast when he'd seen them both sitting eating with everyone else he'd frozen, his pipe falling from his mouth as he stared at them gape jawed. Everyone had felt the surge from the massive wave of course, but no one had realized that anyone had fallen overboard. Sora looked over at Namine questioningly for a moment, she didn't meet his gaze and he frowned, poking at his bacon uncomfortably. What exactly did Namine know? For that matter, he looked over at Roxas, did Roxas know anything? It was troubling to think that the others might be keeping secrets from him; especially Roxas.

The Captain by that point had regained his composure—and, perhaps more importantly, his pipe—and had joined the rest of the crew for breakfast though he kept a curious and watchful eye on Sora and Namine. There was no wariness in the gaze, just a sort of wonder, the way you might stare at an object you'd never noticed before on a path you'd walked down many times. Sora did his best to ignore it by shrinking into his father's coat which he was wearing to keep out the chills he'd been having since Namine had fished him out of the ocean.

Kairi leaned against him, putting an arm around his shoulders. "Can I come in?"

He smiled, forgetting his troubled thoughts for a moment as he wrapped the coat around them both and they shared their breakfasts, his mind wandered off to other things understandably after that. He still considered that Roxas might be hiding something from him, a little oddly, even though he'd known Namine far longer, the idea that his cousin, practically his twin brother, was keeping something from him bothered him much more than the prospect that one of his oldest friends might be doing so.

"Hey Kairi," she looked up from her food, her smile already easing his doubts, "is Namine hiding something?"

She blinked, frowning slightly, "what do you mean?"

Briefly, and in hushed tones he described what had happened earlier, and his dream to her; as he did so her expression grew increasingly shocked.

"Sora you didn't tell anyone?" She asked in horror, "you could have been killed!"

He shook his head, "I don't think so, Namine seemed to know exactly what would happen, and then the armor thing she had."

Namine looked frightened now, "why would you say something like that Sora? She wouldn't hide anything from us, from me, we're twins!"

"I know," he said trying to be soothing, "bu—"

"You know there are rooms on this ship," Riku said as he pulled the coat off of both their heads, the couple realized that almost everyone was staring at them expectantly, like they'd thought there would be something more going on beneath the overlarge coat. Both Sora and Kairi turned bright red at the insinuations, causing a good deal of laughter, this brought a look of annoyance to Kairi's face after it continued beyond the reasonable limit and she turned to a still red Sora, grabbed him by the collar and kissed him deeply. This of course silenced some in the galley, but inspired others to new heights of teasing and cat calling. For the moment though, despite the surprise he'd suffered from Kairi's show of affection, Sora let the kiss go on, ignoring everything and everyone that troubled him for the time being.

"Leon, are yo—" Sora stopped mid-sentence as he poked his head in through the door of his brother's cabin. Leon had his top off and was standing, half naked with Rinoa leaning against him, her arms stroking his back gently. Sora went bright red and stammered an apology as he tried to backpedal out of the room.

Leon and Rinoa both started laughing, "it isn't what it looks like," she looked at Leon teasingly, as if it could have turned into what it looked like very shortly. Leon turned around to reveal a massive bruise running along his lower back where Rinoa had been rubbing it; there was a strange sheen to it. She held up a jar of ointment with a smile, "someone fell out of bed."

Leon rolled his eyes, "the bed is four and a half feet from the floor."

"Oh poor you," Rinoa said, kissing him softly.

The pair seemed to forget that a very flustered Sora was still standing there like a terrified animal contemplating fight or flight. Leon managed a gentle smile, though as usual the scar did make it look a little more intimidating than was intended.

"Okay, what's eating you now?"

"It's just; remember when I said the heart might be using us, hiding things from us?"

Leon nodded; both he and Rinoa were now completely attentive, Sora looked at her worriedly.

"Sora, she's my fiancée, I think you'd better get used to both of us being in the room." Leon said with a smirk.

"Well…."

He went on to describe the morning's disaster, Leon looked like he might have had a stroke when Sora mentioned getting swept overboard like he had, the expression turned to something more cautious though when he described Namine's appearance, the armor, and what she'd said before going on to describe his dream.

"You think she knows something that the rest of us don't, what did she call you again, Bravery?"

Sora nodded, his brother and Rinoa exchanged looks before the latter spoke up, "I think she knows something, but hasn't the heart done things like this before? You and Roxas don't remember killing Xehanort after all. Couldn't it just be that the heart is letting her know and keeping the rest of the bearers unaware so they don't get hurt? She could just be the control to ensure you all live long enough to discover it yourselves."

It did sound like something the heart might do, considering its track record, but Namine actually wasn't his main worry. What he was afraid of, was that they weren't just going to find an heir; it was that the heart had a completely different purpose that could be considerably more dangerous to everyone involved, and that Namine knew this but wasn't telling anyone.

"Sora, remember what everyone is always saying about the bearers' strength being their hearts?" Rinoa asked.

He nodded, "well, maybe you should listen to your heart, do you think Namine would intentionally put you and the others in danger and not tell you about it?"

Sora considered, taking a deep sigh before shaking his head, Leon smiled, though he still looked concerned. "Then trust your heart, and trust Namine. She's always been a little different, but she's been a good friend. I don't think she's trying to harm anyone." His smile spread, "I have to admit, that armor does sound nice, and if your dream about the gold armor is any indication you might have the same thing. You probably just have to figure out how to use it like she has."

Sora nodded, remembering Namine's hand, how it had glowed green when the armor had melted away, even if he trusted her, wanted to trust her; he still wasn't sure if he trusted the heart's motives.


	10. Chapter 9

"I've never seen anything of the sort," one of the crew remarked.

Roxas could believe it; even Sora who everyone seemed to have designated the resident naturalist, seemed shocked at what they were looking at as it flopped against the side of the ship. The armored fish had a near perfect circle shot through its flank, as if someone had taken a caster and fired an orb through it. What was frightening in Roxas' mind was that, according to Sora, the point at which the armor had been pierced was at least a foot of solid reinforced bone. Not just anything could do that. They'd been on the sea now for over three weeks, nearly a full month had passed and they were only about a dozen or so miles from the Lost Continent according to the sea charts aboard ship. If they continued on this heading, they'd be able to see the shoreline on the horizon by evening, or at least that's what the crew and Captain were saying.

"Whatever did that wasn't very hungry." Remarked Kadaj quietly as he eyed the uneaten carcass.

"It might still be around then," Loz responded, suddenly looking everywhere that everyone else wasn't a little nervously. "We could have scared it off."

Yazoo snorted and looked at his brother dubiously, "It's already scared you off."

"Has not," Loz said sulkily.

"Quiet both of you," Zack said; he was the ranking officer, so they listened.

He was eying the dead fish carefully, "the edges are charred, the bone is fused to the skin too; whatever did that wasn't natural and had a lot of energy."

"A person then," Cloud said quietly.

"Do you know a spell that does that?" Kadaj asked, pointing to the dead fish.

"Something like oblivion maybe, but it wouldn't be that precise." Leon supplied.

Captain Orion harrumphed loudly, bringing everyone's attention to him. "If ye've all finished examin' the dead carp, we're almost where ye need to be. I don' want to sit around in these waters fer too long if ye wouldn't mind."

Cloud, Leon, and Zack all exchanged glances before they nodded agreement, the Captain nodded in turn and began calling out orders for the engines to be brought to bear again and for the sails to be hoisted. Soon the dead fish was far behind them, though no one was ready to forget the implications of what they'd all seen.

Roxas was standing with Namine on the side of the ship, looking out over the water quietly.

"Sora's been acting a little strange lately," Roxas said almost absently as he watched the waves.

Namine shrugged slightly, "he's unsure of what's going to happen."

Roxas frowned and his gaze turned to her face, "did you tell him something?"

She shook her head, "not really."

He sighed and turned to face her fully, putting a hand around her back. "Namine, you can trust me, remember what you're Grandmother said? I'm here for you."

It was strange; she almost seemed to quiver at his words, even as she nodded agreement with what he was saying. Was she saying one thing while believing another? He suspected that was the case actually.

"Namine, what is it?"

She wasn't paying attention to him, she was looking out at the ocean with a grim face, "Roxas, you need to remember."

"Huh?"

"You need to remember right now," she turned to him her face showing real terror. "Remember the dream Loyalty, remember your gift."

Roxas' head split with a painful agony and he collapsed to the deck gripping his head. Namine wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm so sorry, I know it hurts, I know, but you need to do this, follow me just follow my heart Roxas, please."

What she said made no sense to his senses, but his heart seemed to know what it was doing and after another moment of piercing pain it all came back to him, the dream, the orbs, the shards of crystal in his palm, the blue veins spreading through his body and the shining light piercing his eyes. All of it came rushing back in one painful instant; his hand moved to his heart, there was a blue glow in his palm as he panted heavily and pressed it to his chest automatically without thinking. There was a flash and another burst of pain, then the light flowed out from his chest almost like water and covered him, when he finally stood, he was encased in matte blue plate armor, Namine was standing besides him, similarly adorned though hers was a deep green.

She reached an armored hand out and touched his face gently with a sad smile, "please don't hate me, I didn't want to hurt you before it was necessary."

He had no answer for her, she nodded silently as if in acceptance before looking out at the ocean again, this time he saw what she was looking at, there was a ripple approaching the ship, and it was quickly turning into a full wave and there was an eerie green-blue glow coming from beneath the surface. Namine closed her eyes, and there was a tremor in Roxas' mind and he felt three more presences touch his heart and realized that she was reaching out for the others. _All of you, Compassion, Power, Bravery, awake._ He gritted his teeth as their pain was shared with him; he gave them what strength he could even as the pain pierced his mind. Then, as if summoned by the shared agony, the other three appeared besides him on the deck, Riku in crimson armor, Kairi in orange, and Sora in gold, none of them had helmets and all looked confused, blinking in as their minds recovered from the pain.

"Are all of you ready?" Namine asked quietly, sounding dejected.

"You knew about that all along didn't you," Riku said quietly, his voice sounded dangerous, "Wisdom."

"Not right now Riku…Power," Kairi said a gentle smile on her face as she stood by her sister. "You remember the dream too; the heart said this would happen."

"I'm getting sick of the heart screwing with us," Riku said, his expression dark.

"That is a big scorpion," Sora said blankly.

They stopped in their conversation and stared at him as if he'd gone mad. Then Riku's eyes widened and he whispered a quiet oath.

Roxas turned and felt his heart seize up, he noticed for the first time all the screaming and shouting on the ship then as the creature loomed over the clipper above them, it looked like a sea scorpion, but orange, blue, and green light shimmered out from its almost skeletal body. The eyes in its head glowed a blood thirsty orange and it opened its mandibles wide, a white-blue glow appeared and then it spat a beam of coherent energy at them, instinctively all of them leapt into the air, Roxas was shocked at how far they leapt, the creature was at least four stories tall as it loomed over them and they easily jumped above it. A helmet had snapped into place over his head, covering his face, at first he felt claustrophobic, there were no opening slits like in the plate armor he'd seen before, but then it was like he could see through the helm and his senses calmed.

The clipper was listing heavily with a gaping, and burning, hole in its flank as the leviathan loomed over it, the hole was identical to that had been borne by the armored fish from before. He saw Riku land on the monster's back and realized that it wasn't just the armor that had become evidenced, Riku's keyblade had changed as well it was larger, heavier and looked all the more deadly for it. It was as if it had resized specifically to accommodate the armor. The leviathan reared and threw Riku from its back as he stabbed between one of the glowing plates that made up its body. Letting out a roar it turned to face the airborne armored opponents that it was now facing, but not before dozens of smaller scorpion-like creations poured from its abdomen and onto the deck of the ship where a terrified crew, and the other members of the expedition were left to deal with them.

His own keyblade snapped into existence as the leviathan's mandibles parted once more, and the beam of energy fired at him, he brought his keyblade down instinctively even as his mind told him that there was no way he could deflect the blast. His keyblade collided with the beam and it sundered around the blade and around him, washing over him in a warm wave.

"Use your second blade," a voice commanded in his mind.

He obeyed without thought and his second blade appeared, he held it above his head and the energy flowed over and around his armor into the blade. It shook with energy and it felt like it might explode, he cast the blade towards the leviathan and the gathered energy roared out like Cid's cannon from a year earlier, tearing into the leviathan which staggered under the blow but remained standing, bellowing in fury at its attacker. A massive claw rose up and swung at Roxas, the gold armor of Sora met it with his blade though, and then rapid fire bursts of energy began peppering it, Roxas looked to see the bursts coming from Kairi and Namine, circling it in the air. He couldn't believe that their armor allowed them to levitate like this but he wasn't going to complain. Riku returned to the fight, his keyblade glowing with power as he slashed at the claw assault Sora, severing it from its limb. The monster howled and eyed its attackers for a moment before it dove beneath the waves.

"Is it over?" Kairi called, she sounded terrified.

"I thi—" Riku began, but he never finished as the monster rose again, this time beneath the ship, shattering the clipper's spine and sending the smaller scorpions, crew, and their friends sailing into the air and eventually into the water. It dove down again as they watched in horror as a massive wave rose up and hurled the flailing survivors towards the shoreline violently, then the sky went dark as an even more massive wave rose up and engulfed the five armored bearers, throwing them like rag dolls in the turbulent current. Roxas was surprised to find that he could breathe, even if he couldn't move in the iron grip of the wave. It felt like something in the water itself was attacking him in his armor, keeping him pinned as if in a vice. Then something struck him hard in the back of his head and he lost consciousness.

"Wake up," came a whispered voice, Sora tried to move his body, but felt a great weight around him. "Leon needs your help Sora, so do the others;" the voice said gently, it sounded familiar. A second voice joined the first, this one much gruffer. "Come on son, get on your feet, you can do it."

"Be gentle," chided the first voice, "he's injured."

"No worse than any I've had, get up Sora, you can do it."

Sora's mind cleared and he recognized both the voices, "Mom…Dad" He whispered weakly, everything hurt, like he'd been pummeled by dozens of stones.

"Get up Sora," his mother's voice whispered again, "open your eyes."

He did, and the light shining in his eyes was almost blinding, he looked around, half expecting to see the giant scorpion looming over him, instead he found himself on a rocky beach, there were triblatytes scuttling this way and that across the rocks in search of food as the waves washed against the stony shore. Achingly he got to his feet, crying out in pain as he put weight on his left leg and sinking to his hands and knees. He forced himself to stand after breathing for a time, and then began moving down the beach with no clear destination, his mother had said that Leon needed him, but where was Leon? For that matter, where was everyone? He seemed alone on the beach, there was no sign of wreckage from the ship, no bodies not even any of the creatures that had infested the ship in its last moments were to be seen. Though he did see several actual sea scorpions chasing down the helpless triblatytes and was careful to avoid the meter long arthropods. They might not be venomous like their land bound cousins, but they could easily take a limb off with their serrated claws and barbed pincers and the large barb at the tip of their tail was nothing to sneeze at either.

He looked inland at the forbidding tree line, he felt like he was being watched by something in the shadows of the trees, something he couldn't see. That he heard no bird calls from the trees was equally disturbing. His head buzzed and he wondered if that was because of the armor, it felt like someone had took a hammer to his skull and started playing it like a drum. He went over the battle in his mind, the leviathan, the pain when he'd remembered the dream that somehow had been blocked. Riku's pervading annoyance at Namine and the heart both, and finally the feeling of helplessness as the ship had been shattered. His thoughts were broken by a groan and he looked over the rocky ground, at first he didn't see anything, but as he continued to move along the beach; he heard the groan again and went towards the sound, ignoring the resurging pain in his leg as he quickened his pace.

"Rinoa, he exclaimed as he spotted her sprawled in a rocky basin, the waves washing over her body. Her face was clenched in pain as she lay against the rocks.

He looped his arms around her chest, oblivious to the fact that he was holding things that he really shouldn't be as he pulled her out of the pool of water and onto the dryer rocks beyond. With a ragged breath she opened her eyes and looked up at him, smiling despite the look of pain on her face.

"Don't worry Sora, I won't tell Leon."

Sora blushed as he realized what she was talking about and jerked his hands back; she winced, clutching at her side. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Its okay, it was my fault I guess," her hand began to glow as she pressed it against her ribs after a moment the look of pain on her face passed and she began to breath easier. She sat up gingerly, testing her body's reaction to the motion; looking at Sora standing besides her she noticed his favored leg. "Sit down, let me see."

Sora did as he was told, trying not to look anywhere but at her, her soaked clothes clung to her body very fittingly and he felt the color returning to his face as he thought of it.

She removed his boot and pushed him his pant leg, examining the twisted limb beneath. "Alright, here goes." She pressed her hand to his leg and began pressing, Sora gasped as his leg gave an unpleasant pop, Rinoa's palm began glowing again and the pain eased.

"There, that should do it, you're lucky it wasn't broken."

"Rinoa, what happened" he asked quietly.

"I was hoping you could tell me Sora," she said with a smile as they both stood. "You and the other bearers were the ones flying around the ship like birds."

"I don't really understand what's going on at all." His voice was apologetic; he wished Namine was here, since she actually seemed to know more than any of them after all.

She nodded understanding, taking his hand as they began walking further down the beach. "Come on; let's see if we can find anyone else."

Sora couldn't shake the feeling that they were still being watched and shadowed by something beyond the trees, and as they walked, he kept one eye on the trees, his hand held out and at the ready. He didn't want to use the armor again just yet, he still had a splitting headache, but his keyblade didn't require anything so strenuous.

Author's Note: Okay, time to answer the inevitable question: what does the armor look like? It looks akin to the armor from the special ending of KH II (you can find it on youtube if you have no idea what I'm talking about) without the big ears (bloody infernal ears) and cape. Very heavily built but allows its user to move very fluidly despite the protection it offers. As Roxas realized, the helmet does not have any openings, but the user can see out through it nonetheless. To get an idea of the powers it imparts, compare the bearer armor to Sora's different Forms in KH II. It gives them a massive power-up to their abilities and yes, it allows a form of flight. Using it has the effect of making you feel like you've just had a bit of a hangover. Also, I realize this chapter doesn't flow very well, but I needed to get things moving again or the story was going to stagnate, so I'm sorry for the rush, but I didn't want to let things wallow. I'll get things back under control in the next few chapters.


	11. Extra: Medical Magicks

People have asked me this question a few times now, and as I am wont to do, I will explain why there is both magic and medicine simultaneously in Storm.

The medical practice in Storm has been around for centuries and is quite advanced and capable. However it can't do more than the human body will allow as is the case with any medicine it must work within limits. What magic does in this regard is simple, it accelerates and aids in the body's processes; hastening and augmenting the healing in a way that medicine cannot do. Now in Storm there are things that magic cannot do, such as reattach absent limbs or fix broken bones. If you were to cast a healing spell without first splinting the bone in the proper position you'd end up with an improperly healed bone. The same applies for missing limbs, if the wound has already been closed and healed over there is nothing that magic can do, at least not properly; in addition if you were to try and reattach a limb without first placing it back properly over the wound (usually with stitches and splinting) the limb could be reattached in an odd manner. That's why in Storm you see both doctors and healers working in the medical corps and why those in the medical profession, whether mystically or scientifically trained are often cross trained to act as both a medical and magical doctor so they can properly administer aid.

A good example of what I'm talking about would be this, in the KH and FF games, you get hurt you just cast Cure or Heal and voila, you're good to go. In Storm that would work on minor things like cuts, bruises, or sprains but on something major like a severed limb, broken bone, or massive epidermal trauma you would be asking for trouble just casting a random spell on it. It might even kill you depending on the kind of wound you were dealing with.

Potions take the middle ground in that they are not truly magical, they accelerate the healing process, restore vitality (stamina, fatigue etc) and dull pain; but this isn't because of any magical properties, it is because the plants and the like that are used to make the potions have these curative properties and by combining various ingredients you come up with viable first aid. This is why the typical procedure in Storm medically is to give a potion to a patient first thing before administering medical or magical aid. The potion serves to calm the victim, ease their pain and strengthen their body's natural defenses but not to the degree that a healing spell could ever do.

So that's the gist of it, I hope that explains away any confusion for my readers.


	12. Chapter 10

"How's your leg doing?"

"Huh what," Sora said, jumping as Rinoa spoke; his attention had been fully focused on the forest yet again.

"How is your leg, does it hurt?"

"No," Sora lied with a smile, "its fine."

The truth was that it stung, it didn't exactly hurt, but it was agitated. Rinoa had accelerated the healing process after all, and that was bound to cause some issues without any medication to ease the process along. To be honest though, they'd been walking for over an hour and now and if that hadn't stopped him then there obviously wasn't an issue. The dying light though, might be a bigger problem if they couldn't find any of the others before then.

"Alright, but if it gets too strenuous," she was saying gently, "we'll take a break."

Sora wasn't paying attention; his eyes had lit upon something ahead in the distance, silhouetted against the setting sun. He quickened his pace and clambered over a small outcropping to get a better look at the distant shapes.

"Cloud, Kadaj!" He called, cupping his hands together. The pair of distant figures turned around, both reaching for weapons before Cloud raised his in greeting, the pair walked towards Sora and when the two groups merged Cloud and Rinoa exchanged a brief hug before he put a hand on Sora's shoulder with a smile.

"You are going to tell them right?" Kadaj asked quietly, eying Cloud thoughtfully.

Cloud glared at him, but then sighed and undid part of his armor that covered his arm, Sora noticed that his left arm was hanging limply at his side and that there were puncture marks in the armor; Cloud must have been injured during the attack on the ship. When he had removed the armor from his arm Rinoa let out a gasp. Sora's eyes widened in surprise as they looked at his cousin's arm; from his shoulder downwards his arm was a sickly black color. He removed the armored glove and revealed more of whatever was in his system had extended to his hand and fingers as well.

"What are you doing on your feet you idiot!" Rinoa yelled, she looked around quickly before grabbing Cloud's good arm and dragging him towards the forest and the low grass beneath the boughs of the trees.

"Lay down," she commanded.

"I'm fine Rin—"

"No, you're not; Kadaj if he doesn't lay down you can knock him unconscious!"

Cloud looked over at Kadaj who put his hands up as if to say orders were orders though there was a hint of an amused smile around the edges of his mouth. Cloud lied down in the grass and let Rinoa look over his arm. Sora knelt down besides his cousin and watched the procedure as she moved the arm around and asked the kinds of silly questions that you always got asked at the doctor, strangely in this situation they didn't seem nearly as silly. She continued to examine the arm before finally sighing, looking at Cloud worriedly who didn't look the least bit phased, in fact he seemed almost indifferent, perhaps annoyed even.

"I need to open up your arm," she said, almost apologetically as she looked up at Kadaj. "Just a small cut, above the wrist, we don't want him to bleed to death."

Cloud tensed as Kadaj's double bladed sword hissed out of its sheath, to Kadaj's credit he was very surgical and opened up a cut that didn't even show initially and only started bleeding after a few seconds had passed. Rinoa placed her hands on Cloud's shoulder and closed her eyes as she focused, her hands began to glow and the blackness began to recede down the length of Cloud's arm. Sora's eyes went to the cut, there was black ooze seeping from the wound as Rinoa traveled down the arm. When she reached the cut, she moved on of her hands to his hand, clasping it gently and intertwining her fingers with his, squeezing tightly with her glowing digits. The blackness again receded and more of the ooze issued out of the cut and dripped onto the grass where it seemed to sizzle before vanishing.

"That's not supposed to happen is it?" Kadaj asked curiously, watching the black filth vanish.

Rinoa shook her head, "I've never seen anything like this before…I can't believe it responded to my magic, I thought it was just venom but this is something else entirely."

"Would you mind not talking about my arm as if I'm not lying here? I do not need to hear this while you're treating me."

"Oh, right sorry," Rinoa said a little sheepishly as she continued to ease the ooze from Cloud's arm with her magic.

Sora's attention had turned back to the trees however; the feeling that they were being watched was upon him again and more intensely than before. His hand shifted nervously and he considered calling his keyblade to him, but for what? He couldn't see anything after all in what was quickly becoming night; it just felt like something was watching them and with the sudden proximity to the trees the feeling felt all the more intense. Unable to see anything that would pose a threat, he contented himself with simply watching the darkness between the tress for any telltale movements.

"Hey!"

The sudden shout made all four of them jump, Cloud was on his feet, the black ooze dripping from his fingers now as he reached up for his weapon, Kadaj already had his weapon drawn.

"Easy, it's just us." Leon said, as he came closer, stepping around Kadaj's sword. "We saw the glow from the magic and then heard your voices."

Behind him, Namine, Kairi, Loz, and Yazoo followed. Sora rushed over to Kairi and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"Sora, I'm fine," she said with a smile.

"I know, I was worried though;" anything further was interrupted when Loz plopped something heave over their heads, Sora pulled it off and smiled up at him. "Thanks Loz!"

The older man looked embarrassed and scratched his cheek distractedly, "yeah well it looked important."

"We brought these too," Yazoo said, throwing a water tight casket nearly as big as he was onto the grass. He gave it a kick and it popped open to reveal their armors, or at least those that weren't already being worn by their owners.

"You held onto a trunk in the middle of all that?" Kadaj asked his brothers dubiously.

Yazoo shrugged and planted himself on the grass, he looked exhausted. "We needed it, those gauntlet blades and staves are in there as well."

"What happened to you," Leon asked, noticing Cloud's arm, it was trembling, as if convulsing from some kind of spasm.

"One of those things on the ship got me." He said, lying back down, he didn't say it, but Sora noticed that he looked very relieved to be back on the ground instead of on his feet.

Rinoa knelt back down next to him, brushing her hair out of her eyes before she resumed her task, slowly forcing all the black liquid out of Cloud's arm.

Leon knelt besides her, "are you okay?"

"I had a few bruises but they're fine now, have you seen any of the others?"

Leon shook his head, looking over at Sora and Kairi, now huddled together under Auron's coat, Namine was with them leaning against Kairi's shoulder.

"No, Kairi and Namine found me, then we found Yazoo and Loz lugging that trunk around the beach shortly after that."

"And then you saw us?"

"Saw your hands," he corrected, reaching down to touch her softly glowing hands gently.

Cloud gave him a friendly scowl, "stop hitting on my doctor."

Leon playfully punched Cloud's leg, "she's my fiancée."

"So we're still missing Tifa, Roxas, Riku, Aerith, and Zack."

"And the entire crew of the ship," Leon reminded him.

"Do you seriously think they're still alive," Kadaj asked quietly.

There was a long silence as they all contemplated the reality. Without any powers or training to speak of, the crew likely wasn't going to be seen again.

"_Tomorrow, will take us away, far from home….."_

Namine's voice sent shivers down Sora's spine, but after a moment more of silence, she continued. The group remained somberly quiet as she finished the song and gave a final farewell to the brave souls that had brought them to these shores as the night closed around them.

His vision was a blur when he first opened his eyes; a gentle hand stroked his cheek and ran through his hair.

"Namine?"

Tifa laughed, "no, but I'm just as glad that you're awake."

Roxas blinked and looked up at his brother's girlfriend and realized that he was lying in her lap.

"I uh sorry," he muttered with a blush, trying to sit up, his head spun and he sank back down.

"Yeah that's what I thought;" Tifa chided soothingly. "Just stay here until the other's get back."

"Back," Roxas murmured in confusion.

"Riku, Zack, and Aerith; they went out to see if they could find anyone else."

"What abo—" Roxas winced as his head gave another painful tour of the world on carousel.

"We don't know where any of the others are, that's why they're out looking." Tifa said gently, "try not to strain yourself Roxas," she grinned teasingly, "Cloud would kill me if I let his little brother get hurt in my lap."

Roxas blushed again, taking a deep breath and rolling off of Tifa's lap slowly, she frowned but didn't stop him as he slowly got up into a sitting position from all fours. Having righted himself, he was able to give their surroundings a proper once over, they were in a small rock cave with a sandy floor; he could hear water, waves he thought, somewhere nearby.

"Where are we?"

"The Lost Continent, somewhere along the northern coast I assume, we found this cave shortly after we found you lying on the beach."

"He's awake?" They looked up to see Aerith coming around the bend in the cave; she sat down on the sandy floor besides them.

"Did you find anything?"

She shook her head, "nothing, Zack didn't either. He's gone to go find Riku."

"Find him?" Tifa said her tone alarmed.

"He went inland," Aerith said worriedly, "and wasn't back at our agreed meeting place with sunset; we waited for ten minutes before Zack told me to come back here to check on you and Roxas he went into the forest to find Riku."

Tifa frowned, "I hope they're alright in there by themselves."

"So do I, though to be honest I'm more worried about everyone else than I am about those two."

Tifa nodded agreement, Roxas had the mental image of his friends all drowned at sea and shuddered involuntarily at the scene, putting his arms around himself. His head gave a splitting spin and he groaned, leaning forwards slightly.

Aerith frowned and moved over to him, placing the back of her hand against his forehead. "You don't have a fever at least, but…if I didn't know better I would think you had a hangover."

She turned her hand over, flattening her palm against his forehead; a deep soothing coolness worked its way down from his forehead and through the rest of his body. It was like splashing water on his face after just waking up, he felt completely refreshed suddenly and very relieved.

"Thanks," he murmured with a sigh.

"Just don't push yourself; the spell will wear off in a few minutes though the pain shouldn't come back your body will probably still feel fatigued once it does."

"Aerith!"

They all jumped at the shout, a moment later Zack came into the chamber carrying a limp Riku in his arms.

Aerith was on her feet in an instant, "put him down."

Zack did as he was told stepping back and letting Aerith looked over RIku. Roxas got his first good look at Sora's childhood friend and felt his insides twist painfully. Riku's eyes were covered in some kind of crusted foam and his irises, normally a vibrant blue, were a dull gray and were looking around the cave vacantly.

"What happened," she asked urgently.

"An overgrown snake happened," Zack said, leaning back against the cave wall. "Damn thing was following him around as he stumbled through the trees, when I showed up it spat at me; I assume that's what happened to Riku's eyes."

Tifa looked at the opening of the cave sharpy, "where's the snake now?"

"Dead, or at least it better be, I took its head off."

Aerith had torn part of her jacket off at the hem and was wiping away the venom from Riku's eyes, her expression sorrowful and pained.

"What is it?" Zack said, catching the look on her face.

"I can't do anything for him," she sounded helpless, and her eyes stung with tears.

"What's happening," Roxas asked, looking at the adults worriedly.

"The venom was inflaming his throat, I've cleaned it out but…" she looked at Riku closing her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Riku, can you hear me?"

He nodded, trying to speak but only a whisper came out. "Don't try to speak, your throat is still clearing up," she said gently, taking his hand and holding it tenderly.

"Aerith, what is wrong with him," Zack asked impatiently.

She short him a reproachful glare and he retreated slightly, "look at his eyes Zack, he's blind! The venom destroyed his eyes and I can't do anything about it!"

Her voice was controlled, even though she seemed like she wanted to cry; Zack knelt down and wrapped his arms around her. Riku let go of her hand, his expression one of bewilderment and pain. Roxas looked at Tifa, and they both shared the same thought, the hope that the others had faired better than they had.

Author's Note: yes, that was mean, but blame it on Square for making Riku wear that blasted blindfold and giving me the idea! ....besides the blindness thing will come in handy later in a strange way, just watch for the extra(and yes, for once I am PLANNING an extra)!


	13. Chapter 11

"Something is watching us," Riku murmured as Zack carried him along the beach.

"I thought you were blind." Zack responded, shifting Riku's weight on his back, much to Riku's annoyance as he had to watch out for Zack's massive sword or risk being cut, it had been discovered that the uneven rocky beach was too hard for him to navigate. So there he was, riding piggy-back on Zack.

"I am," he said with a scowl. "It's," he paused here, frowning as he tried to describe it, "these bright shimmering lights on either side of us; inland and in the ocean, just weird lights, they're the same colors as that thing that attacked the ship."

"Oh great," muttered Zack. "Just what we needed, something to attack us now of all times."

Roxas scanned the forest; the trees remained eerily dark despite it being broad daylight and he couldn't see anything there and the idea that someone who had just lost their vision could see anything at all sounded a little far fetched. He looked up at Riku skeptically, his eyes had proven extremely sensitive to light when they'd emerged from the cave, so Tifa had torn a bit of her clothing and made a blindfold for him; the black strip of leather was now wrapped around his head.

"Do you see anything?" He asked Aerith, she shook her head though she seemed to take Riku's comment far more seriously than either Zack or Roxas did as she was now watching both the trees and the waves with equal caution.

Roxas shifted uneasily, his head was still aching though not nearly as badly as the previous night. Now it was just a dull throbbing every now and again. He looked back over his shoulder to see Tifa strolling along behind the rest of the group; she was looking out at the sea as she walked with her arms behind her back.

"You're really bad at this," Riku grumbled as Zack hefted him again, giving him a jarring lurch and bumping him into the flat of his blade.

"You want to walk wise guy?" Zack responded.

"You know I can't," Riku said sourly.

The bickering continued, Aerith seemed to ignore it, and continued to watch their flanks as the party moved along, Roxas however found it difficult to do anything with the pair arguing and so he slowly fell back until he was besides Tifa and Zack and Riku's complaints were only distant mutterings. Tifa seemed lost in thought and it took her a few moments to realize that Roxas had joined in her silence.

"Oh sorry," she said suddenly. "I wasn't paying attention."

"I think he's fine Tifa, its Cloud."

The smile she gave him was far from reassured, "I hope so Roxas, I hope all of them are safe."

Roxas didn't think anyone here was safe, but if anyone, or any group of people was going to get close to safe. Well after last year he'd have put everything he owned on this group of people being as close to safe on this continent.

"Riku says something is watching us, from the trees and the water."

"Riku is blind," Tifa pointed out.

Roxas briefly explained what Riku had said, Tifa listened intently, and seemingly eager for anything that could distract her from thoughts of Cloud. When he'd finished she was silent for a moment more before speaking.

"The bearers are tied to the heart, so what if these things that he's seeing are also tied to it, and he's able to see them despite being blind because of that?"

"That sounds a little suspect though, why wouldn't he be able to see everyone else then?" Roxas inquired with a thoughtful frown, "we're all tied to the heart in some way."

Tifa shrugged, "I'm just throwing that out there Roxas, I have no idea if it makes any sense or not."

Their conversation was cut short then as Riku gave a shout of warning and the rocks erupted around Zack's feet, Aerith was thrown clear but Zack and Riku found themselves surrounded by miniaturized versions of the massive armored scorpion that had attacked the ship. Each was about a meter long and rippled with shimmering orange, green, and yellow eerie lights. Their tails raised high as they closed around Zack and Riku, Zack said something to Riku and then crouched down, letting Riku off before drawing his sword. Roxas' blades snapped into his hands as he rushed forwards, then with a bellowing roar, another group of strange glowing metal or stone, he still couldn't tell what material the creatures were actually made out of, burst out from the trees, they were in the form of massive snakes, cats, and even a spider that looked like it might have been made out of blue and purple glass.

"Roxas go," Tifa shouted, clenching her fists, electricity coursing over her hands.

"Bu—"

"Go, Zack can't protect Riku by himself if he's fighting!"

Without another word she leapt at the nearest enemy, an orange glowing cat, her booted foot shattering its face with an explosive impact, she pushed off and landed behind the new attackers, and they turned as one to face her. Roxas bit his lip and rushed towards the sea scorpions that were swarming Zack and Riku. What he saw surprised him, the pair was back to back and Riku was actually fighting his share of the enemies effectively, though his footwork was ginger at best as he made his way over the hard ground.

Roxas spun through three of the scorpions, shattering them as he joined the pair. "I thought you were blind," he called to Riku.

"How many times do I have to say it? I can see them!" Riku snapped in annoyance.

Roxas didn't ask further as he turned to block a stinger coming in from his flank. The scorpions were rather pitiful; the Heartless had actually been more of a challenge though less coordinated perhaps as the scorpions seemed intent on surrounding, enveloping, and separating their opponents, even at the expense of their own lives and there were a lot of them.

"Duck," Zack called, Roxas didn't even think as he and Riku flattened themselves and what felt like a wave of wind swept over his head. Getting to his feet again he found that the scorpions had most of their barbed tails severed, Aerith was standing nearby with a grim set to her face as she cast out additional wind blades at their attackers. A surge from the surf behind her brought more attackers out and she raised her hand upwards, bringing a solid wall of water up to shield herself from the fresh attacks. The new wave of scorpions did their job though, leaving Zack, Riku, and Roxas to fend for themselves yet again against the remaining enemies of those that had surrounded them. Aerith's blades had done good work though as many of the scorpions had lost their tails reducing the number of weapons the defenders had to deal with.

Roxas stole a glance at Tifa, watching as she leapt out of the way of the snakes, two of the three cats lay sprawled on the ground and in pieces, the third staggered around aimlessly, headless, he almost felt sorry for the creature, but not quite. The spider though held his attention as it scuttled towards them and raised its fore-legs high above them, driving them into the ground, shattering rocks and throwing scorpions in every direction as the trio leapt out of the way of the spider's flurry of attacks. Roxas rolled and stood up to see the glass spider looming over him, poised to strike. He brought his blades up in an attempt to defend himself, and then a volley of caster shots hit the spider in the face, forcing it back for a moment as it reeled, more from surprise than actual damage. He looked over his shoulder and saw a welcome sight as Leon and Yazoo, firing into the spider, calmly walked forwards as Loz, Kadaj, and Cloud rushed towards it, weapons drawn.

"Get clear," Zack ordered, moving to help Aerith with her attackers, Roxas made to follow and then spied Riku stumbling over the broken terrain. Dodging around the spider's stamping legs he grabbed Riku and helping him to his feet and ran as best he could with Riku under one arm. Kadaj was already atop the spider's abdomen slashing viciously at the spider's hardened crystalline form while Loz perched on its face slamming his shock ram into its eyes repeatedly. Roxas looked for his brother and found him, to his surprise, clutching his arm and on his knees. He felt the urge to go to his brother but resisted the urge as he saw Tifa disengaging the remaining snake and rushing to Cloud's aid, he had his own troubles with Riku under one arm. The spider let out a deafening and enraged hiss at this fresh slew of attacks and began scuttling back towards the massive forest, Kadaj and Loz disengaged, letting the overgrown arachnid escape into the jungle with a few parting shots from Leon and Yazoo and a hastily cast lighting blast from Rinoa as its farewell gifts. The remaining scorpions hurried back into the ocean and the last snake found itself cut in half when Sora threw his keyblade at its retreating form.

"How'd you find us anyways," Zack asked, like everyone else, he'd now abandoned his clothes for the armor that Cid had crafted for them which Loz and Yazoo had been thoughtful enough to retrieve once the fighting had ended.

"The big spider was a good hint," Kadaj said offhandedly.

Loz shuddered and cringed as his brother mentioned the spider, it had come as a surprise to everyone, after seeing Loz leap on the spider's face as he had, to learn that he was terrified of spiders, he had been since Kadaj and Yazoo had played a series of nasty pranks on him involving large tarantulas. How he'd managed to leap on this spider so readily was anyone's guess.

"We were just heading the opposite direction along the beach when we saw you," Leon said, frowning as he watched Rinoa and Aerith examining Cloud's arm, which had mysteriously been re-infected during the night and was causing him a great deal of pain, enough that he'd collapsed during the fight. Tifa sat besides Cloud, letting him lean against her silently.

Aerith shook her head, "this isn't an infection, at least not a normal one. This is magic to some degree; you said you bled it clean last night Rinoa?"

Rinoa nodded, "his arm was completely clean when I finished, there wasn't a trace of it left."

"And yet here it is worse than before from what you've told me," Aerith said thoughtfully, of the pair, she had more experience in the medical field so in this case Rinoa was acting as her assistant and back up should she need either.

Sora, Roxas, Namine, Kairi, and Riku were standing some distance away from the rest of the group, talking quietly amongst themselves.

"So you can't see anything?" Sora asked Riku quietly.

"Which includes that annoying face you're making right now," Riku said tersely.

Sora winced at the tone his friend assumed, and then Kairi came to his rescue.

"He's just worried about you Riku, we all are."

"I'm fine, I just can't see."

"Zack had to carry you on his back," Roxas pointed out, which earned him what amounted to a glare from the blindfolded Riku, but he continued. "Tell them about the things that attacked us."

"I can see them, or their outlines. It's like the glow of their body somehow radiates to the point where I can see it despite being blind."

"Something to do with the heart maybe," Namine stated, for once sounding just as unsure as anyone else which was both a relief and frightening all at once.

"That reminds me," Riku said, his voice darkening. "Can we trust you, or the heart for that matter?"

Namine flinched, Roxas immediately jumped to her defense. "It's not her fault," he said instantly.

"She knew that we were going to be attacked on the ship, she remembered the dream when none of us did. What else do you think she might know that we don't?"

Riku's voice was aggressive now, and if he still had his eyes they'd probably be burning holes in Namine who winced at each accusation. Roxas stood by her though, even though he knew that Riku did have a point. She'd kept things from all four of them and it hurt, but she was in this with them and…well damn it he loved her. After a long and uncomfortable silence, Kairi stepped in.

"Riku, I don't think Namine is to blame for this, any of this. And I know you're hurting more than you'll ever let any of us know, but don't take it out on her. She's here just like the rest of us; and I refuse to think that she would intentionally endanger anyone."

Sora nodded agreement, "we've known each other since we were kids Riku, and we've never tried to hurt each other before; why should we start now?"

They all watched Riku who stood there stonily for what seemed like forever before he spoke.

"You're all staring at me aren't you," he said a slight smile crossing his face, he sighed heavily. "I don't think I can trust you anymore Namine, or the heart."

"I haven't trusted the heart for a while now," Sora said with a smile, "but, Namine's one of us, one the bearers and one of our friends. That means that I'll trust her no matter what."

Riku shook his head, "you always were the simple one." With another heavy sigh he turned to go, making his way towards the others slowly.

Sora exchanged glances with the others, Roxas just shrugged, gripping Namine's hand tightly. There was another silence, and then Roxas spoke and asked the question that had been nagging at him.

"What happened to Cloud's arm?"

"He says that one of the scorpions on the ship got him," Kairi said.

"But," and here he frowned, looking at Sora. "I thought sea scorpions weren't venomous?"

"Do these look like normal animals to you?" Sora asked dubiously.

Roxas, for a change, felt like the idiot. "No, I guess you're right."

Namine squeezed his hand, "he'll be fine it's Cloud after all."

He looked at her in surprise for a moment, before he pulled her close and hugged her, closing his eyes and holding on as if the world was about to end. Sora and Kairi moved off quietly, leaving the pair some privacy.


	14. Chapter 12

"Have I told you that you're a terrible carriage lately?" Riku muttered as his head hit another low lying branch.

"Not for the past ten minutes no," Zack said tersely.

"Well you're terrible; don't quit the Elites anytime soon."

"Does someone else want to lug him around?"

Leon chuckled, "oh come on Zack, cut him some slack. He did just lose his eyesight after all; he can be bratty if he wants."

"That didn't change very much" Loz said with a smirk, "he's still a jerk."

"Are we done teasing the blind guy?" Riku asked haughtily.

"Probably not," Loz said cheerily, Yazoo elbowed him in the ribs, "okay maybe."

Sora was only half listening to the squabbling; his mind was focused on the trail they'd taken from the beach moving inland. There'd been a lot of debate over whether or not to take the trail as it obviously wasn't well used. Sora had pointed out that an animal trail leading away from the beach was probably their best bet to find water, and as they were sorely lacking in supplies there was no real argument against his reasoning. So here they were trekking through the underbrush with the massive trees rising above their heads and shafts of sunlight glittering down through the foliage. It was really quite beautiful Sora thought, or it would have been if they weren't constantly watching for more of the monsters. Riku seemed to be the only one that could actually sight them which bothered Sora to no end; it seemed to him that if there was a link to the heart then all the bearers should be able to see them. No such luck though.

The good news at least was that Riku hadn't seen any sign of the monsters since the morning on the beach. It seemed that whatever was driving them had decided to leave the travelers alone for now which was fine by Sora. He looked over his shoulder; Cloud was walking stiffly, with Roxas and Tifa standing nearby him. He hadn't collapsed again, but his movements were sluggish and he had a fever. Aerith was still at a loss, it didn't seem to be a natural infection, and it wasn't behaving like magic either since it didn't respond to dispels or anything like that. For now, she said that she and Rinoa would just have to cleanse it each evening and hope that it wouldn't spread beyond his arm which was where it seemed confined too for the time being.

Ahead of him on the trail Kadaj came jogging back with Rinoa, the pair had been scouting ahead of the main party consistently to get a lay of the terrain.

"Find anything," Zack asked, hefting Riku.

"Yes, there's a clearing with a stream fed pool about a kilometer ahead, Rinoa already set up wards to give us warning should anything decide to pay us a visit."

"Well that solves one of our problems," Yazoo said as he joined the conversation. "We still have no idea how we're supposed to find this heir."

"We don't even know what shore we're on," Zack said with tight smile, "we were going to land in the remnants of the Port of Adea, and use whatever remained of the road systems to find our way inland. That's obviously not an option now."

"So for now we're just going to camp out and do what?" Cloud asked tersely.

"Wait I guess," Zack said with a shrug, "we need to find a bearing point before we do anything. Eventually one of us will have to climb a tree I suppose and point us in a direction."

Loz snorted and shook his head with a smile, "our intrepid explorers travel deeper into the dense jungle, unaware of what may await them."

"Don't you dare start self-narration; we're in enough trouble already." Leon said with a smile.

With the initial wards set by Rinoa, Aerith was able to expand and broaden their reach to just over have a kilometer around their chosen campsite. It gave them some modicum of security for the time being. The clearing itself was nothing special, a roughly ovoid area that was relatively clear of brush thanks to the flow of a large stream through it that pooled because of a sinkhole off center of the clearing, it was around this pool that they made what passed for a camp, using their weapons they were able to spear several fish in the pool and stream preparing a decent lunch for themselves using brush to start a cooking fire.

"Well, it isn't Dad's cooking," Loz remarked quietly as he gnawed on his fish, "but it beats going hungry."

Yazoo snorted, finishing off his own fish and reaching for another, Tifa swatted his hand away, "wait until everyone is ready for seconds."

He scowled at her and looked around the forest, "does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched."

Sora paused, fish in mouth and followed Yazoo's gaze around the dense trees and brush around them, Riku hadn't seen any of the creatures wandering around at all, they seemed to have decided to leave them alone after the initial thrashing it had given them first on the ship, and then again on the beach. Since then though, nothing; was that a good sign or a bad one was the question. The others were looking around as well now, a few nodded.

"It does feel like we're being watched by something," Zack agreed.

"You're all just paranoid," Kadaj said, waving a hand dismissively.

"I'd rather be paranoid than surprised," Zack returned with a smile, glancing over at Cloud who was sitting quietly and clutching his arm. "How are you holding up?"

Cloud merely grunted, his teeth clenched, Zack frowned and moved over to him, undoing the clasps that held the armor in place as he examined Cloud's arm.

"This isn't good, Aerith?"

She stood up from her place by the pool and came over to Cloud, mirroring the frown on Zack's face. "It's moving to his chest," she murmured, pressing her palm against Cloud's breast firmly, the green glow of a healing spell emanating from her hand. "I don't know what we can do to stop it, even when I keep purging it; it simply seems to spread further."

That comment, added to Yazoo's feeling of unease sent ripples of worry through the group and everyone fell silent for a long while. Besides him, Kairi pressed closer to Sora and he wrapped his arm around her gently as he chewed on his fish in a much less enthusiastic manner.

"I need to go," Riku suddenly said, breaking the silence in a rather awkward manner as he stood up and moved towards the tree line.

"Are we sure he's blind?" Leon asked idly, watching how deftly Riku made his way through the brush until he was out of sight; the comment brought a much needed chuckle to the group, even Cloud smiled, though weakly.

"He's ha—" Kadaj began but he was stopped short as an explosion of light and sound tore through the clearing.

"I can't see!" Someone yelled, Sora thought it was Zack but he wasn't certain, his ears were ringing too much to tell. Without thinking he clutched his palm to his chest and his armor activated, his helm slamming down over his head; the ringing in his ears vanished and his vision returned it was like his body had been reset. His keyblade looked very different, it was no longer the slender blade that he was used to, it looked like someone had handed him a two-by-four. A very sharp two-by-four; looking around he saw Roxas, Kairi, and Namine all in their armor as well, it occurred to him that Riku might be able to see with his armor on then, he looked but there was no sign of his friend. He saw his brother and cousin staggering about just like everyone else, then he saw the others, there were three dozen or so and they wore masks that glowed the same color as the creatures that had attacked them before. They wore little else though, except for a glowing pendant and what looked like skirts, some wore what looked like chest wraps; all were armed with long, heavy spears shimmering with the same light as their masks as well as nets.

That told Sora all he needed to know and he leapt, the motion bolstered by the armor, at his nearest opponent raising his blade and bringing it down to collide with the man's—he assumed it was a man, it wasn't wearing a chest covering—spear. The two weapons collided in a shower of sparks and Sora jumped back in surprise, he'd been moving too fast for any normal human to block him, what had happened? His opponent mirrored the motion, though whether or not he was surprised Sora couldn't tell. He moved to put himself between the opponents facing him and the rest of the team that were still staggering around blind and deaf; Roxas, Namine, and Kairi had moved to shield them as well just as he had. Their attackers seemed unsure of what they were facing and were holding back; Sora wondered how long the pause would last and if it was enough time for everyone else to become more than a bumbling target. He hoped so, he wasn't sure about fighting these people, that block had been a shock to say the least. He still wasn't sure what his suit could do, but he was sure that he'd been moving fast enough to slip under some random native's guard.

"Alright that's enough!" Riku yelled, Sora's head snapped around to see Riku, dressed in his normal armor, not the red one the heart had gifted him, with the wrist blade extended and pressed against the throat a girl who looked about the same age as he was, maybe a little older even, with silver hair and eyes that, rather than looking terrified, looked furious.

"Back off all of you," Riku said; pressing the blade firmly to the girl's throat. It was then that Sora realized that Riku was acting like he could see the group facing his friends. Was Leon right in asking if he was blind?

"Riku ho—"

"Not right now Sora lets sort this out first." Riku responded instantly, he leaned down to the girl and whispered something; she scowled at him but nodded. Riku raised his arms and let her loose, and she said something unintelligible to the other attackers; they moved off to the edge of the clearing before the girl turned to Sora and the others.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" She demanded, arms crossed over her chest.

"I understood that!" Loz said excitedly from behind Sora.

"Yeah, but can you see," Yazoo asked, sounding annoyed.

"I'm just glad I can hear you two again," Kadaj said, shaking his head and blinking blearily.

"Enough," the girl said sternly as Riku stepped over towards Roxas quietly, his covered eyes turned towards the girl's voice. "I asked who you are."

"You attacked us," Zack said, coming to stand next to Sora, he glanced at the armor for a moment, "nice armor," before he looked back towards the girl. "You tell us who you are."

She glared at him for a moment longer before speaking, "I am Kidagakash Nedakh."

Zack blinked, shaking his head, "okay I know I heard it, but I don't think I can pronounce it."

The girl took a deep breath, "I am Kida."

"We're from the Northern Continent, we're here looking for someone."

She raised an eyebrow, "considering the size of this continent, that's quite an expedition."

"We had some setbacks," Leon said, "some of your local fauna doesn't like us very much."

"You've been attacked by the chimera?" She asked, the others in her party lowered their weapons suddenly; then everyone had their weapons out. Kida's eyes peered past Sora, he took the time to look behind him realized that she was looking at Cloud, her eyes narrowing as she walked forwards. Zack put his blade in her path; she looked at it calmly before pushing it away. "Your friend is doing to die if you don't let me tend to him."

Zack paused, biting his lift for a moment before he moved the blade away from her, she knelt next to Cloud, Aerith watched her cautiously, Tifa moved to stand over Kida threateningly.

"If you hurt him, I'll kill you."

"This is going to hurt him, but it will save his life." She responded defensively.

Rinoa stood and put a hand on Tifa's shoulder who bit her lip and stepped back, letting the girl tend to Cloud. Aerith knelt besides her, helping her move Cloud's armor aside, Kida examined the shifting black filth on Cloud's body, before she took the pendant and pressed it against Cloud's arm. There was a sizzling and Cloud's eyes widened, a moment later he began howling in agony as his arm sizzled at the touch of Kida's crystal. Sora clenched his eyes shut, and wished that his armor would let him clamp his ears shut too. Kida began to carve glyphs into Cloud's arm and his screams intensified as the blackness began to move towards the glowing glyphs. The infection, or whatever it was, faded leaving Cloud panting for breath and sweating.

Tifa knelt down, pushing Kida away and holding Cloud close, "its okay, Cloud I'm right here, you're fine."

"He'll be fine now," she said, "the stigma is gone now, but he'll be very weak for a while."

"I," Tifa began, looking up with a frown, "thank you."

Kida didn't react, turning back to Zack. "You're coming with us."

"To where," Kadaj asked, fingering his sword tensely.

"To our home, you can't run around the jungle like this, you'll either get yourself killed, or anger the chimera and that means trouble for all of us."

She walked past them, Sora deactivated his armor, wincing and clenching his teeth, grinding them together as the headache hit him. Why was it, he pondered as everyone exchanged glances before following after Kida, that he could down all that alcohol on the ship and be alright relatively speaking, but he used this armor and he felt like someone was using his head for a drum.


	15. Extra: Riku, Meet Kida Kida, Meet Riku

Riku made his way around the brush gingerly, cursing the snake that had blinded him as he stumbled over whatever it was that his foot collided with. For a change he didn't resent his aunt and uncle for the training they'd put him through along with his cousins; it had been miserable, but sensory deprivation was certainly coming in handy right now, even if it was clumsily. He counted off the number of steps he'd taken in his head, the last thing he wanted to do was start relieving himself in view of everyone else; not on his to do list. He fiddled with his armor and managed to undo the correct parts and not have the entire thing drop off of him completely. He sighed as he stood with his legs splayed and tried to think of everything that had happened thus far and what he was going to do about it all. Right now, strangely, his main concern was Namine and whether or not he could trust her. The others did, he knew that, and couldn't even blame them for it to be fair. After all, Sora had known her forever, Kairi was her twin sister, and Roxas was in love with her. He was in the same boat as Sora, he just refused to trust people once they showed they knew more than they were willing to tell you, especially when it involved his own livelihood.

Namine had held back the armor, and who knew what else as well, as far as he knew she could already know what the heart intended and what was intended for all of them. He hated the idea that someone else knew more about his course in life than he did. It filled him with a simmering anger that needed an outlet, and until he found an outlet for the anger and a reason to believe that Namine was worth his trust again, he would give her the benefit of the doubt. The others would take care of that, he'd have plenty of time to make it up to her if it turned out that his mistrust was unwarranted. A branch snapped and he froze, his business not yet completed as he scowled.

"I swear if that's you guys I am going to kill you."

Something hissed, and he froze, thinking it might be another snake, and then something pressed against his neck.

"Don't move outlander."

Well, Riku thought to himself, at least it wasn't a snake; he could handle a strange girl with a knife. The snake was another matter.

"Turn around, slowly."

"I can't if you've got that knife there," he said placidly, wondering what to do about his indecency; especially give the female nature of his aggressor. Nothing to be done about it he supposed.

The knife shifted to the side of his neck, he wondered if it could cut through the armor or not, after all it was designed to stop Heartless, a knife shouldn't pose that much problem for it right? Slowly he rotated, the knife sliding along his neck slowly, never leaving contact. There was a loud pop somewhere in the distance and Riku heard his captor draw breath.

"My people are taking your friends no—what are you doing!"

The moment of indignant shock was enough for Riku, yes it was quite literally a dirty trick but it was her own fault for interrupting him. He jutted his head forwards, feeling the knife grate on his armor and slide off, one gamble paid in full, and then felt his forehead collide with hers. She staggered away from him, and he jumped forwards, slamming into her with his entire body and twisting her wrist and its offending weapon. He felt a moments shock as his skin pressed against hers and he fought with his own body for motor control, feeling his face turn crimson, he couldn't afford to freeze up and he pushed past the sensation. They rolled in the brush for what seemed like minutes before he remembered what else his armor could do, he flicked his wrist and heard the familiar snap of metal clearing its sheath. He pressed the blade against her bare skin and she immediately froze, Riku twisted, pressing the metal home to make his point.

"Get up," she did and he smiled, that had been easy.

"Do you always hold women hostage with your pride hanging out outlander?"

Her voice was cold and filled with fury, at least she sounded pretty, he wondered if she actually was attractive, another favor he owed that snake. He couldn't hide the blush though that her comment brought to his face.

"You attacked me, now you can do me a favor."

"I will not," she said coolly.

"Oh you will, or else I'm going to make this more awkward for both of us," he couldn't believe he was using that of all things as a threat, what could you do? "Fasten up my pants."

There was a long pause, and then, "no." She didn't sound so much angry now as indignant and shocked that he'd asked.

"Do it," he grumbled embarrassed to be in this situation as he pressed the blade against her skin, "or your friends are going to be short a member."

She took a deep breath, he wondered if she was really going to do it, then he felt her hand grab his armor and begin amending the embarrassing situation found between his legs. She wasn't gentle about it either, and he let out a constrained cry as she was extra violent about zipping the offending flap and closing the armor up over it.

"Watch it, or I might just cut your throat anyways."

"You wouldn't dare," she scoffed.

"Try me," he heard the sounds of fighting back towards the others, "walk, we've got a fight to stop."

"What makes you think I'll let you stop it?"

He flipped out his second wrist blade and pressed it against the small of her back, "what makes you think I'll give you a choice?"

There was silence for what seemed forever, the only sound was their breathing and the distant sound of whatever battle her 'friends' had engaged Riku's companions in.

Finally she took in a deep breath and sighed, "this is humiliating, follow me."

She began moving back the way he'd come, at least it felt like the right way to him, he kept one blade against her back, the other against her throat. This trip couldn't get much weirder as far as he was concerned, what more could happen to make it worse?

AN: Yes, this was mostly because it made me laugh (I get to digress sometimes too) but also because this was really what I had in mind when I imagined Riku getting ambushed by Kida, but since my story focuses on Roxas and Sora's points of view I had to make it an extra.


	16. Chapter 13

Their party made its way deeper into the thickly forested jungle and as they did so less and less light penetrated the canopy. Sora's head was still stinging violently from using his armor earlier; it wasn't as splitting as it had been the first time. Now it just felt like a swarm of angry wasps was stabbing his head from the inside; that wasn't too bad all things considered though it still hurt. He glanced over his shoulder, two of their guide-captors had produced a large clothe from pouches worn at their hips and wrapped it between their spears to create a litter for Cloud and were carrying him. Tifa, Roxas, and Namine were all staying nearby him; at the moment he was sleeping. Kida, the girl who had healed him, had said he'd be weak and she hadn't been kidding. He could barely move beyond opening his eyes from time to time.

"How do you think they got past the wards?"

Sora turned to see Zack, Leon, and Kadaj ahead of him, speaking quietly to one another.

"I'll bet even money that those masks shield them." Leon said, glancing at the men and women flanking them.

"It would make sense, especially if they somehow shield them from those chimera things as well." Kadaj supplied as he considered. "They're probably drawn by magic or life essences; one or the other."

"That would explain why they're all flanking us, aside from the obvious fact that we're essentially their prisoners." Leon said with another furtive glance to either side of him.

"Well we didn't exactly have much choice did we," Zack said, even though his back was to Sora he was obviously smiling. "We needed to contact somebody didn't we? And these people certainly seem to know where they're going. Maybe they can help us with our navigation issues."

"Or just throw us in a cell," Kadaj said dourly.

"You think we'd let them?" Zack asked skeptically.

"You think we'd have a choice?" Leon returned his voice dubious.

The three continued in this vein but Sora stopped paying attention to them and looked towards the head of the column where Kida was holding Riku's arm tightly and guiding him over the rough terrain. Sora didn't know what to make of his friend, as far as he knew, Riku was in fact blind. Despite that, he'd beaten Kida and made his way back to the rest of the group holding onto her. Granted it hadn't been that far of a walk, but still, and now there he was stumbling along on the uneven ground again as if he were blinder than a stone. Sora wasn't sure what to make of his friend's condition in the slightest and wondered if Riku's eyes really were gone or if he was just playing some kind of joke on everyone. It sounded like something he would do, but not in this situation, leaving Sora right back where his questions had begun.

"Sora?"

He looked at Kairi walking besides him, smiling as he reached down and squeezing her hand gently.

"Do you think Riku's okay up there by himself?" She asked.

He looked up at Riku and Kida again with a shrug. "I guess, I mean she isn't trying to kill him right?"

Kairi frowned at him reproachfully, "I'm being serious Sora."

"Hey so was I," he said as she elbowed him in the ribs. "She doesn't seem to want to hurt him, so I think they're fine."

"I'm just worried about him feeling alienated after what he said about Namine."

Now it was Sora's turn to frown, looking up at his longtime friend. "You aren't having second thoughts are you?"

"Of course not, she's my sister, how could I not trust her? I just, well Riku's been in my life nearly as long and its scary thinking that he might not be there any longer because of Namine."

Sora's mind switched gears instantly and his obnoxious smile spread across his face. "Hey come on, everything will be fine in the end; we'll find the King's heir, go home and laugh about all of this."

Any further conversation was forestalled as their column stopped, Sora looked ahead and noticed that Kida was no where to be seen and one of their guards had moved to take her place. The sudden stop brought with it an eerie silence that he hadn't noticed before, the animals around them must have noticed the sudden change in the procession and were waiting to see if it was safe or not to continue calling. Moments later Kida came running up the path, spoke briefly in her tongue to the man who had taken her place and then turned and spoke again to the other men and women in the same unintelligible language.

"Did anyone understand a word of that," inquired Loz in confused tones.

"Hold on a moment," Yazoo said caustically to his brother, "I think I have my 'Gibberish for Idiots' on me."

Loz winced and scowled, looking hurt, "you don't have to be an ass about it."

Yazoo rolled his eyes and looked ahead again as the column resumed its trek, "mother and father dropped you too many times."

"Did not," Loz cried indignantly.

The conversation might have continued if it weren't for Kadaj, "enough, both of you. Can't you act like adults for a few hours at least?"

"He started it," muttered Loz.

Kadaj scowled at him and he shrank back, Sora sometimes wondered how the trio had managed not to kill any of their number considering that they seemed to be in a constant state of teasing one another. His mind returned to the matter of finding the heir and what to do about Namine's apparent knowledge about everything involving the heart before anyone else; or more accurately what to do about Riku's mistrust of her for that knowledge. He was so lost in his thoughts of the entire mess that he walked right into his Kadaj who turned and scowled.

"Fall asleep on your feet?"

Sora flushed and stammered an apology, looking around and realizing that they'd come to a clearing, their guards had moved out in a perimeter around them, none of them showed the slightest sign of moving, the two carrying Cloud set him down near the center of the clearing where Kida knelt besides him as she again pressed her glowing crystal against his arm tenderly. Cloud let out a groan but otherwise showed little reaction to whatever she was doing. When she finished she stood up and looked at their group quietly for a moment before speaking.

"We'll rest here for the night, tomorrow we'll arrive."

"Arrive where," Zack asked as she turned away.

She turned to look at him again, her expression blank, "the remains of our kingdom."

Roxas sat with a frown on his face as he studied Cloud's clenched expression, he'd started groaning again a few minutes before and had just now subsided but he really looked like he was in pain now. Roxas hated feeling so useless; if he felt bad though, Tifa looked like she was going insane with worry as she sat besides Cloud holding his uninfected arm. From the strained look on her face, Roxas guessed that Cloud was squeezing her hand, probably crushing it. Tifa hadn't let go though, not even to eat which worried everyone including Roxas. There was a commotion back towards the rest of the group, where the dull glow of the rock that the locals had infused with their crystals sat, Kida, who'd been leading them this whole time was gesturing at Riku and speaking with a handful of her companions who kept laughing at her. Her voice grew increasingly irritated until finally she stalked over to Riku, throwing her glass or crystal—Roxas wasn't sure which—bladed dagger into the dirt in front of him. Riku leaned back as if to look up at her, Roxas almost thought he was actually looking at her for a moment.

"The others are questioning my abilities," she said in a matter of fact tone, "we're going to settle it."

"Settle what," Riku said, sounding about as uninterested as was possible.

"Whether you can actually beat me or not," Kida said.

Riku frowned, "I'm tired."

She kicked his leg, he scrambled back out of the way, and turning what might have been a nasty blow into a glancing one.

"Not tired enough, come on" she said, reaching her hand out to him, touching his shoulder.

He took it, pulling himself up with a sigh. "This is stupid."

She glared at him, "this is something I have to do."

Roxas stood up and moved out with everyone else, giving them plenty of room, he cast a glance over at Sora, sleeping on Auron's coat with Kairi. Namine was sitting besides them, she met Roxas' gaze and looked down at the sleeping pair before looking back at him and shaking her head. Roxas supposed she was right, better that they rest while they could. They weren't the only ones asleep, Zack, Aerith, Loz—who was snoring loudly—Leon, and Rinoa were all sleeping around the fire, as were a couple of their captors. Besides, what was to miss, it was just a fight, and they'd all seen those before hadn't they? Kida squared off against Riku, who stood with his head tilted downwards and his body turned away from hers, the way he'd canted his head, it looked as if he was listening for her.

"Are you going to fight or not," Kida asked, sounding annoyed as her companions said a few words that sounded taunting even if Roxas couldn't understand the words themselves.

"Whenever you're ready to stop talking," Riku said simply.

Kida's eyes narrowed and she moved into a wide crouch, her legs splayed out to either side as she circled Riku who continued to remain motionless.

"You know this isn't fair," Yazoo said with an amused smile.

"Be quiet Yazoo, let him have fun." Kadaj said, his arms crossed, his expression cruel. "If the girl thinks she can beat him in a fair fight, let her try."

Roxas thought it strange that Kadaj was calling Kida a girl, she didn't look that much younger than the triplets really, and in fact she might have even been older considering how she was ordering around the other members of her party despite the fact that most of them looked older than her. His mind registered then the full weight of what Kadaj had said, he looked up at him in confusion.

"You think Riku can win in a fair fight?"

"Any of us could," Kadaj said with a shrug.

"I couldn't," Roxas said with a frown. "Not if I was blind."

Yazoo chuckled, "what he means by 'any of us' is himself, Loz, Riku, and I. We've all had the same training; though why mother and father put him through it is beyond me. He doesn't even want to join the Elites."

Yazoo said this last part with such disdain that he might have been saying that Riku wanted to fly to the moon. Roxas didn't see anything wrong with not wanting to intentionally put himself in danger; he just happened to know a lot of people that he cared about who seemed hell bent on putting themselves in danger. He wanted to ask more about what training they were talking about; then Kida made her move and drew all attention back to herself and Riku as she came at him. She stayed low to the ground, delivering a kick straight up, that if it had connected, might have done some serious damage. Riku sidestepped it though, drifting to the side and dropping his elbow down into Kida's shoulder. She staggered but remained on her feet, twisting as her leg came down and catching Riku's arm before he could withdraw it, effectively locking them together. What followed was a mad scramble in the grass as both of them tried to get atop the other and pin their opponent down. Roxas was struck by two things, how silent everyone, including the combatants were. He looked over at the various sleeping parties, none of them had stirred despite the scuffling, and it seemed surreal, so much in fact that he thought he might be dreaming.

He continued to watch the fight, nothing really changed as the pair rolled in the grass. Then Kida made a grab for the knife she'd planted in the soil before, she grasped the hilt and pulled it free. Riku didn't seem to realize what had happened at first until she raised her hand up, he grabbed her wrist then and the fight shifted from their bodies to their hands as Riku tried to keep her from pushing the dagger downwards. Roxas' heart leapt into his throat as he watched, he looked up at Kadaj and Yazoo, the latter was leaning forwards intently, looking all too excited about all of this while the former stood stoically with a thin smile that looked all too much like one of his father's expressions for his own good. His gaze went back to the fight as Kida gave out a shriek, Riku had activated his boot blade and the knife had cut into her shin. There was now a low murmur running through the other members of Kida's party, as if this turn of events actually worried them. Riku used Kida's surprise to his advantage, pushing up and back forcing her onto her back freeing his other hand. With a snap of his wrist, that blade flipped out of its compartment and he poised himself above Kida with the blade pointing at her throat.

His eyes were still covered, but the grim twist of his mouth was a little too familiar to Roxas, he'd seen it before when Riku had fought the Heartless, he got the distinct feeling that Kida had bitten off more than she could chew. Then he noticed the red slash across Riku's cheek and the trail of blood seeping down from it to his jaw line, he blinked, trying to remember when Kida had gotten in that blow.

"Riku, that's enough," Kadaj said coolly.

Riku's body froze, and after a moment he lifted himself off Kida, turning and walking back towards Kadaj, Roxas, and Yazoo. Yazoo stopped him and began examining his cheek appraisingly.

"Well that was a surprise; I didn't think she'd be able to get you."

Riku winced gingerly as Yazoo probed the wound, "I didn't realize she'd grabbed the knife."

Kadaj snorted, "careless of you."

"I didn't think she'd try using a weapon."

"Says the guy who pulled two knives on her," Yazoo said with a chuckle, finally ceasing his mothering.

"She started it," Riku said, almost sounding sullen.

"I'm just glad that you're okay," Roxas said.

Riku turned to him and smiled, the expression looking a bit creepy without eyes to go with it.

"I'm fine, that was actually kinda fun."

"Well your girlfriend is limping over," Yazoo said with a smirk.

Riku turned to find Kida approaching, favoring her uninjured leg, she stopped in front of him and smirked, the expression mirroring Riku's own.

"Okay, maybe you can fight after all outlander."

"Same to you, are we even?"

She snorted and smirked, putting a hand on her hip as she eyed him. "Maybe, we'll just have to see."

AN: That took me way too long, but thanks to this little bit I've gotten a good idea of how the story will progress which solves my problems. Hope I haven't lost all my readers, more to come.


	17. Chapter 14

The next morning, Sora was sullen, "why didn't you wake me up?"

"It only lasted a few seconds Sora," Roxas said in slight exasperation.

"Yeah, but I've been wondering about Riku's eyes all this time and how he could have beaten anyone without being able to see."

"You didn't miss anything; he kept the blindfold on the entire time."

Sora fumed quietly, Roxas sighed his cousin was just odd sometimes. Instead of just asking Riku about his eyes, Sora seemed hell bent on watching Riku actually fight first. Some people were just hopeless.

"Don't worry," Roxas soothed, "I'm sure we'll be seeing more trouble before long and I'm equally sure that you'll see Riku fight then too."

"Like I'll remember to watch him while I'm fighting too," Sora said, Kairi jabbed him in the ribs. "Ow! What?"

"You're horrible," she said with a knowing smile, "hoping Riku and that girl fight again. Can't you just hope we all get along and go home?"

Sora smiled and Roxas winced though not without a hidden smile of his own. He knew that smile anywhere these days; Sora and Kairi just seemed to have their own way of showing affection that entailed her constantly chiding and teasing him. He let them get to the oncoming debate over Sora's concern for Riku, or lack of, as he considered the changed dynamic of their party. Last night's fight seemed to have changed the attitudes of their captors who now seemed to consider the group with more respect now. As if Riku's brawl with Kida had shown them that the 'outlanders' as Kida constantly referred to them were actually worth something more than extra guard duty. Roxas looked over his shoulder at his older brother. Cloud had finally woken up after being unconscious since Kida had first ran the crystal over his arm though he was still weak. Right now Zack and Tifa were supporting him though aside from being a bit dazed he now seemed alright. His wounded arm was actually functional and he could move it without collapsing in pain which was always a bonus.

Cloud looked up, and gave Roxas what passed for a reassuring smile, Roxas nodded, smiling back. He was just happy that Cloud was going to be okay, he'd been terrified when Cloud had collapsed the first time and even more so when whatever Kida had done to him had put him under. Now at least, he had Cloud's calm reassurance to give him comfort.

"We're about to have company."

Roxas jumped, and turned to see Riku walking besides him, when had he gotten there?

"More of those things," Sora asked, his voice brimming with excitement.

Riku nodded, "and they're big."

"Oh good," Kadaj said with a leer, "maybe they'll do us a favor and rid us of these guards."

"I doubt it," Riku said idly, "I already told Kida."

Yazoo scowled, "now that's no fun."

"Just be ready, they've been stalking us for a little over a minute now. I don't know what they're waiting for, but there's probably a choke point coming up, just be careful."

Roxas nodded, and then remembered that Riku couldn't see. "Okay, we'll keep an eye out." He blinked a moment and winced, "err…sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Riku said, though his tone didn't sound like the remark hadn't touched a nerve.

"Yeah," Loz said, "because we haven't been doing that already. Anyone get the feeling we're out of our depth?"

"Maybe you are," chided Riku with a smile, "but I'm getting used to this."

He moved back to the head of the column, making his way gingerly around the obstacles in his path.

Yazoo raised an eyebrow, "he's getting cocky."

Kadaj shrugged and smiled, holding up his hands in a manner which said: what can you do?

Loz sounded teary as he spoke, "I remember when he was just a sweet little brother, what happened?"

Yazoo hit him in the back of head, "idiot. We did, mother and father helped."

"Actually," Sora said with an embarrassed smile, "he's always been cocky. Maybe not around you guys, but around me he's always been that way."

Roxas had to admit, whenever he'd interacted with Riku, he'd always been arrogant, to the point of being a complete jerk in fact. To hear Loz say that he'd been anything else before was rather surprising; but then again, living in a household where your role models were some of the best warriors in the kingdom and the leaders of the Elites…well that was bound to make anyone humble. He'd certainly be humbled. As the procession continued, he kept an eye out; he did, from time to time, see things moving. Not the Chimera themselves, he'd taken to using their captor's title for them, it was more reassuring knowing they had a name; but he did see some of the thick foliage beyond the path they were following shift and the sounds made by whatever it was that was moving beyond his vision were hard to hide. There were a lot of them, and they were on all side.

Namine moved up to join him, "Roxas, this isn't safe."

He nodded, no, this really wasn't; but what were they supposed to do? Go charging after their stalkers into the brush and bush and just hope they could find their way back? That wasn't any better than just sticking to the path was. He hated unsolvable problems, more than he hated this entire situation really.

"Well, there's our chokepoint," muttered Loz sullenly.

Roxas' eyes snapped forwards, the thick forest and jungle was coming to an end, there was a wall of foliage covered cliff face ahead of their party with a narrow canyon way in its middle; their path was heading straight towards it. Roxas felt his mind begin to panic, where they trying to get themselves killed? This was insane; they couldn't fight if they were forced to move into tight quarters.

"We can't fight in there," he said nervously.

Kadaj looked back at him, "yes we can, we'll just have to be careful."

"What about Cloud?"

Kadaj's face froze, "oh."

"Heh, nice going kid," Yazoo said. "You managed to slip up Kadaj."

Roxas wasn't exactly pleased about the accomplishment; it didn't solve the problem of what they were going to do with Cloud in such a confined space. It was then that Kida came walking towards them.

She paused as she passed, "once we reach the crevice, run, it opens up a few yards in. We'll be able to defend ourselves there."

"What about my brother?"

Kida looked at Cloud for a moment with a frown, "he'll have to keep up."

"Are you insane," Tifa exploded, calling up from her position next to Cloud. "He's barely walking by himself and you expect him to run?"

Kida scowled at her, walking backwards to stay with the group. "Not my problem, I have to make sure as many of my people make it to safety as possible, yours are your problem."

She left them there, and none of them looked happy, Roxas bit his lip, he hated being a hero…but it was his brother at stake. He turned to look at Sora, speaking quietly so Cloud wouldn't hear.

"Sora, can I ask a favor?"

"Sure," Sora said easily, Roxas had a feeling that his cousin wasn't going to be so pleased once he heard the request.

"I'm going to hang behind, let the others get Cloud to safety."

Sora's eyes widened, "I'm not going to let you do that by yourself!"

Roxas smiled, no Sora didn't like it; "I know, that's the favor."

"You don't even have to ask, Cloud's my big brother too you know!"

"If you two are doing this, then we're going to help." Kairi said, "and don't even think of objecting," she added as Sora opened his mouth. "Your brother's are important to you, you're important to me."

Namine nodded agreement, "we'll need something to tell us when it's safe to fall back."

"I'll handle that," Yazoo said, holding up his caster. "One flare shot coming up."

Roxas licked his lips, "alright, I'm going to tell Cloud."

He fell back to meet with Zack, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Rinoa and Leon; as he explained the plan he saw his brother's face darkening.

Leon didn't look anymore pleased; "you can't just stand at the mouth of that thing waiting for us to call out the all clear."

"Cloud can't run," Roxas said simply, "you'll need time to move him."

"If this is about getting yourselves killed versus saving my life, just leave me behind, I'm not helpless."

Tifa punched him in the ribs, he let out a yelped groan, and she scowled. "No hero duty for you Cloud."

He glared at her, his expression uncommonly vicious. "I'm not letting my little brothers get killed because of me."

"That's right," she said soothingly, "you're letting them buy us the time we need. They aren't going to die."

Roxas nodded, "we have our armor, and the Chimera haven't penetrated it yet."

"'Yet'," Zack spoke up, "doesn't mean 'can't'."

"I can't believe I'm saying this since it's my little brothers doing this," Leon said, his expression grim; "but I don't think we have a choice if we want this to work."

Rinoa nodded agreement, Tifa did too, and then Zack and Aerith, Cloud looked traumatized. "No! I am not letting you do this!"

"Sorry," Zack said, "but it isn't your choice."

"You ar—" he didn't get any further as Aerith pressed a cloth over his mouth, for an instant his eyes bulged, then relaxed as he went limp.

Zack and Tifa caught his full weight now, hefting his light frame easily. Leon frowned. "I'm not sure if that made our job easier or harder."

"Easier," Zack said, "I don't want to carry him kicking and screaming."

Roxas felt wholly responsible for what had just happened, and just hoped that Cloud could forgive him when this was over. He went back to the others, Riku and Kida had joined them.

"What are you doing here," he asked.

Riku shrugged, "you don't get to play hero without me."

"Not you," Roxas scowled, "her."

Kida glared at him, "be quiet outlander, can you find your way to our city?"

"I—no, I can't."

"Exactly," she said definitively.

"I thought you didn't care about us,"

She took a deep breath, "maybe I don't want to live with the guilt of having to leave you behind in the wilderness. Maybe I just want a challenge; maybe it's not your concern. I'll stay with you all and take you to our city once we fall back."

Up ahead, one of the other natives called back and Kida responded, "we sprint to the opening, and then make our stand. They can still get over us and into the opening from above, but that's one hundred feet up."

Roxas nodded, looking at the others, before pressing his hand to his chest, the glow of his armor engulfed him and then he was fully encased, everything around him becoming clearer, he could even see glimpses of the Chimera that had been keeping out of sight before. The others were in their armor as well; Kida slipped her mask over her face, hefting her spear.

"Now," she called out, shouting out what Roxas assumed was the same command in her language.

Everyone started running, surprisingly; Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo actually beat the locals to the crevice and kept on going. Roxas and the others sprinted as well, he knew the armor would let him go faster, but he held back, letting Zack and Tifa get past him carrying the now unconscious Cloud. The guilt pangs gripped at him again, but he shook it aside as he turned to stand his ground. Riku and Kida were on his left, Sora, Kairi and Namine were on the other side.

"I meant to ask before, how does that armor work," Kida said, her spear facing the forested jungle before them.

Roxas looked over at Namine, his helmeted head rotating to face her. What did they tell Kida exactly? And would she just think they were insane? Namine knew the most about the armor, and probably the heart too.

"It was a gift," she said simply.

Kida snorted, "and none of your companions received any of them?"

"We're special," Sora chimed in, his keyblade snapping into his gauntleted hand.

Roxas and the others all summoned their blades as well, Kida paused she sounded stunned.

"Those blades….."

"Yeah," Riku said, "like Sora said, we're special."

"You're the bearers; I wish I hadn't agreed to let you do this."

"Why," Kairi asked her voice sounded strangely metallic in her helmet.

"Because my people need your help more than we need to buy your brother time;" she said simply, Roxas glared at her, not that she could see it. "We're dying, and the keybearers might be the way to save us."

"'We,'" asked Roxas.

"My people, we don't have time now, once we're safe I'll tell you more."

"Here they come," Riku said.

Roxas' eyes snapped forwards and watched as the Chimera began to advance out of the foliage. More of the snakes, rising up on their bodies to head height, massive cats, their eyes and mouths glowing with menacing orange and blue lights, there were all kinds of bug-like manifestations as well, scorpions, spiders, and others still. Worst of all, there were dozens of them; this was going to be bad. Then there was shouting, and he looked left in surprise to watch Kida rush towards the Chimera. She leapt into the air, flying forwards and imbedding her spear into the back of one of the scorpions. Her spear flashed bright blue when it connected and the scorpion hissed and clattered agonizingly as it died. Roxas crouched and threw his keyblades, they sliced their way through the Chimera to either side of Kida, she nodded her thanks, Roxas summoned his blades back to him, and with Sora, Namine, and Kairi charged their enemies. Riku was already slashing his way through his first opponent, fighting just as viciously as he had a year earlier against the Heartless. Maybe he really could see them, Roxas thought as he slammed into a cat-like Chimera.


	18. Chapter 15

"Move," yelled Riku, pointing his hand behind him and shouting out a fireball at the oncoming Chimera as it bellowed and roared towards the group; shoving Kida before him all the way.

The six of them were crammed into the crevice, trying to fall back, Yazoo's flare had gone up over a minute before but they'd been so heavily engaged that they'd only just been able to get back to the relative safety of the trench running through the rock. Three people could stand abreast here, but only if they weren't wearing the armor that the five bearers had on, with it, two was hard enough.

"Everyone down, lightning!" Called Namine, her hands sparking as she threw out a wave of chain lightening, Riku grabbed Kida and slammed them both into the ground as the lighting whipped over above their heads. Sora felt the electric charge coursing over his head, and inside his helmet his hair stood on end.

He stood up, pointing his keyblade back the way they'd come, "barrier!"

The next Chimera slammed into a wall of pure energy, ramming into it head on before staggering back and hissing at them menacingly.

Riku picked himself up, placing a hand against the side of the canyon. "Are we done?"

Kida rolled over and scrambled to her feet, pushing her mask off her head, she was covered in sweat. "Come, we can't stay here." She panted, pushing past the others and taking the lead.

Sora took Riku's arm, "careful."

His friend pulled away, "I'm fine, just have to be careful."

For a moment, Sora was hurt, then annoyance took over and he grabbed Riku's arm again; "you can't see I'm helping."

Riku reluctantly allowed himself to be guided, "how is everyone else?"

"Bruised," called back Roxas, his armor was pitted and charred in places. "They might not be able to break it, but that doesn't mean we don't get tenderized inside of it."

Kairi's helmet bobbed in a nod, "I don't want to think of how much it's going to hurt this time."

Sora winced, yes, using the armor had a price the pain afterwards would probably be pretty severe considering what they'd just gone through. He didn't quite understand why it hurt to use it, and then only after it had been used. He glanced ahead at Kairi, wondering if he should ask her about the armor. After all she'd been the one to show the rest of them how they'd worked. She might know about the pain as well. A series of rocks rolled down the side of the canyon, Sora frowned and looked up.

"Riku," in the same moment he shouted, he shoved his friend against the opposite wall. Both of them flattened as the scorpion's stinger slammed into the ground where they'd been standing, Roxas' keyblade dug into its abdomen and the Chimera tumbled on top of Sora and Riku.

"Here come more," Sora heard Kida call, and the now familiar energized snap he'd come to associate with her spear sounded as it connected with something above their heads.

"Riku are you alright?"

"My head's ringing, and there's a dead Chimera on my back. I guess I'm fine."

Sora nodded, "ready?"

"Ready," he heard Riku grunting as he lifted upwards, Sora did the same, the Chimera's body fell off of them, and they found themselves looking up at the one Kida had skewered hanging lifeless jammed into the rocks above their heads.

"We need to move," Kida said, helping Riku along, "more will follow them and we don't want to be here when they arrive."

"Didn't you say it opened up," Roxas asked, his eyes looking upwards at the sky beyond the rocks.

Kida nodded, "this way," she continued to guide Riku, Sora noted that he didn't protest her help and scowled. Why was he always so difficult?

Their group moved further down the gap though now they all kept an eye upwards at the varying opening running along the crevice top. Once or twice Sora saw a shadow flit across the gap but nothing came down for them. It was during this observation that he realized they weren't going down so much as the rock around them was getting higher. The trees and foliage before had prevented a view of anything beyond a few meters around him. The cliff face they'd gone into had to be quite large considering that it had started at a hundred feet and now looked to be at least double that.

"Its going to open up, get ready, if they're going to attack us again, this will be where they do it."

Kida's warning drew Sora's attention to the front, indeed it was opening up into a roughly circular, thought more ovoid area that had a clear view of the sky above them. It was the perfect place for anyone wanting to attack from above. There was no sign of the others, so they must have already passed here safely. Kida let go of Riku and whirled her spear around in a circle over her head as she scanned the cliffs above them. Riku and Namine stood besides her, Sora, Kairi, and Roxas formed the other half of their defensive circle. The six of them stood there quickly, none of them saying a word as they watched their headroom quickly. Sora took a breath, readying to move when he heard a clattering somewhere above.

Kida swore in her own tongue but Sora certainly got the inflection, "this isn't good. It's very big."

"How big is very big," Roxas asked nervously, his gauntleted fingers tapping on his keyblade hilt.

"I can see its aura or whatever it is I'm seeing," Riku supplied. "And it's definitely big."

Sora watched as first two, then three, and then five, and finally all eight legs clattered over the edge of the opening above their heads until a massive body covered the sun.

"Hope no one's arachnophobic," Riku murmured as the giant blue glass spider shrieked down at them, its eyes glowing golden.

It rotated, pointing it's a abdomen downwards as Sora watched as it opened and hundreds of smaller, chattering spider red glowing Chimera came pouring out.

Sora opened his mouth but was superseded.

"Sora," Roxas said quietly, "don't say it."

"Say what?"

Roxas' helmet turned to look at him, "don't say it."

"But it's—"

"No," Roxas said pointedly, "no it isn't."

"Can we focus," Namine asked as the glowing spiders scrambled down the rock face on all sides.

"The Chimera see you as a threat," Kida said, "they've never come after us like this before."

"Can we tell them that we don't need the honor," Kairi asked her voice shaky even inside her helm.

"It'll be alright Kairi," Sora said with a look towards her. He saw her helmet bob and smiled as he watched the red glow spiders drawing closer. "I'm going."

"I'm going with you," Kairi responded.

He kicked off the ground, his armor giving him the force to lift himself up towards the descending horde.

"Blizzard," he shouted, aiming his keyblade at the nearest patch of Chimera, watching as white blasts of ice froze them in place. They tumbled down below where he hoped they would shatter, Kairi shouted out a wind spell and sent a tornado of glowing spiders crashing into the rocks as Sora landed and began running upwards slashing his keyblade at the rock face in front of him sending spiders flying as he ran up the sheer face. Then a pack of them landed on his armor, he ignored them at first until he felt a splitting pain in his side. He looked down in surprise to find them prying at the plating of his armor. It felt like someone was trying to pick a scab off a freshly healed wound, only multiplied to the point of agony. With a yell he swatted at them with his free hand, crushing them with his armored fingers.

"Don't let them get on you," he heard Namine shout, Sora spun to see her doing the same thing with her own mass of spiders. Crushing them as they tried to pry her armor from her body forcibly, he was panting from the sudden pain, that her voice was steady surprised him but he didn't have time to worry about that as more spiders poured down.

"How about a little force," he called teasingly aiming his keyblade, the spiders were swept up into a strange black-lined orb which then compacted and burst, leaving a fine metallic or ceramic—he wasn't sure which the Chimera actually were—to trickle through the air.

"They just keep coming," Kairi called, grabbing him as he fell and throwing him upwards. "How do we stop them?"

"Cover us," Kida shouted, Sora was shocked to see her jumping up from one ledge to the other, Riku following in her path and giving her a hand whenever she couldn't make the next jump.

He looked over at Kairi who shrugged, "she knows more than we do about them."

Roxas was already acting, whirling his keyblades to provide a shield for Kida's advance as Riku helped her ascend. The spiders seemed to realize the threat to their…whatever the big spider they were coming out of was, and rushed towards them. Sora shouted out a wind attack sending blades of air slashing the rocks and spiders in Kida's path. She was almost at the Chimera now, Riku jumped in front of her again, twisting to grab her wrist and throw her upwards. With a shriek she raised her spear and soared at the Chimera's head, one leg moved off the cliff and slammed into her. Even from his distance Sora heard the crack of breaking bones and winced as he saw Kida fall away, her eyes rolling and her body limp.

"I've got her," Namine called her voice sounding strained.

"Shouldn't you be—" Riku began.

"—I'm injured too; now kill that thing so we can get out of here," she shouted back at him.

"Are you okay," Roxas asked, his voice breaking just slightly.

"Roxas kill that thing," was the terse response.

Sora needed no more prompting as he pushed off and jumped upwards, dodging a slew of spiders as he landed on the large Chimera's abdomen, Roxas landed next to him.

Sora smiled tightly, not that Roxas could see it through his helmet. "This is great."

"What's so great about it," Roxas yelled, as he shattered a spider limb that tried to brush them off.

"We're standing upside down on a giant spider that's dumping little spiders out of i—"

"Sora," Roxas shouted, catching another limb against his blades before he pushed it off. "This isn't the time, just kill it!"

He nodded, focusing everything he could into his keyblade, rotating it around and slamming it downwards into the spider. It shrieked, an earsplitting sound and it began writhing convulsively. Kairi landed on its head and slammed her own blade into an eye, charging it with electricity and increasing the shrieking as it went through its death throws. Then Riku came in, his blade flashing red as he severed the abdomen from the head the Chimera stopped crying out and crumbled into the opening beneath them all. Sora and Roxas dropped with the crumbling spider and looked around as all the little ones skittered away. Then one landed on Sora's chest as he went down, latching onto his chest plate and pulling. He howled in pain as it pried the side of the armor off, Kairi's fist smashed it, and she caught Sora as he hit the side of the grotto's walls, bringing him down gently.

He was gasping and clutching at his chest, "ow…when did they learn how to do that?"

"It's an old tactic, the little ones pry off armor and anything else; your suits are no different."

Sora looked at Kida in confusion as his armor faded from his body. "Wait, I saw it break your ribs, I heard it!"

"We all did," Riku said as he landed besides Kida, for a change he looked suspicious of her instead of Namine. "What happened?"

She bit her lip, looking around at them nervously, "your friend, Namine, is hurt. We should see to her."

"But wha—" Riku began to ask.

"Oh no; Namine what happened?"

Sora looked, Kairi was with Namine now who was holding a deep gash in her side, "the armor," she panted. "If they pry it off, it's like they open up our skin."

Roxas helped her up, and she winced, clinging to him, "it hurts."

"You had us wear these things," Riku said accusatorily. "Without telling us if it gets damaged so do we?"

"I didn't know," Namine protested breathily as Kida brushed her crystal over the wound.

"If you had, would you have told us?"

She looked at Riku pitifully as she gritted her teeth, "of course."

"I doubt that," Riku scoffed.

"Enough," Kairi said, rising up and pushing Riku back; "she's hurt, I know you're angry Riku, but don't take it out on my sister!"

Riku looked surprised at Kairi's attack but Sora hardly blamed her for taking Namine's side. Riku was taking his distrust for Namine a bit beyond reason. She wasn't trying to get them killed or anything. His eyes focused on Kida's crystal then as Namine's wounds began to close up, that must be how she wasn't breathing in her own rib cage. The same way she'd healed Cloud before. Just what was in those crystals?


	19. Chapter 16

Sora frowned as he looked at Namine, who was leaning on Roxas and Kairi just ahead of him. He'd taken the rear position in their column with Kida and Riku out front. Despite Kida's healing, Namine still moved gingerly and Sora would even go so far as to say that she was rejecting the healing. While the wound was closed, blood was still seeping out from it and she was still in great pain. Whatever was in the crystal that allowed Kida to recover from shattered ribs in a matter of seconds obviously wasn't taking kindly to Namine. What that meant or implied about the contents of the crystal Sora wasn't sure, but he hoped that he wouldn't be in need of it if it didn't work properly. At least on Cloud it had worked properly against whatever he'd been infected with.

"We're almost there," Kida called out.

"Just where is your city," Roxas asked incredulously, "we've been heading underground now for at least twenty minutes."

"Not much further now, we'll need to see my father as soon as we arrive," Kida responded calmly.

"Can't we rest first;" Roxas asked fretfully, "Namine's still not healing properly."

"I'm fine Roxas, Aerith or Rinoa will be able to help me."

Kida looked over her shoulder at Namine, "the ancestors have never rejected someone before. I'm sorry that I can't do more for you."

Namine nodded, "who is your father?"

"He is our king."

Sora looked up, "you're a princess?"

His voice must have sounded a little too surprised by way of the glare Kida shot him.

"And," she said coolly.

"Uh, nothing, just that well you don't seem very…regal?"

She scowled, "all must work. I can't just sit around when my people are in need."

"Ignore him," Riku said with a smile, "he puts his foot in his mouth a lot."

Sora frowned but didn't say anything else as they continued; the tunnel they were in was only lit by Kida's crystal, after their fight with the Chimera they'd descended underneath the mountains, and without the blue white glow from Kida there would have been no way for them to see baring some of their own magic. And after that fight, none of the five bearers was in any shape to cast magic. Namine had of course fared the worst with her wound, but Sora's head was still splitting and his mind felt numb. He could only imagine that the others felt similar stabs of pain. On occasion he'd feel a spike of pain himself, and he'd have to stop to take a breath or two before catching up to Kida's ever moving step. Then he saw a light ahead of them, beyond Kida's crystal, she quickened her pace, Roxas and Kairi did their best to keep up with her and Riku as Sora trotted along behind. When they reached that first ray of light and turned the bend everyone stopped dead in their tracks, and with the exception of Riku, stared at the sight before them.

The mountain they were in had opened up into a collapsed plateau with the open sky above it all. There was an entirely different jungle inside the crater and in amongst this jungle were the remains of a city in ruin. The tops of buildings stuck out forlornly from the entangling greenery at the center stood a singular and massive structure with vast complexes of intertwined vines climbing up its tiered exterior. Before this building sat a lake with what were obviously man made tributaries that had once been straight but now were just as tangled as the jungle as they spread through the battered cityscape as the vegetation had reclaimed its grounds. At the vague perimeter of the city stood gargantuan stone monuments of humans, cats, birds, and other creatures all staring outwards as if defending from some unseen threat; oddly they seemed very similar to the Chimera in their construction. It was all so much to take in that Sora couldn't find the words with which to impart the sense of amazement he felt at the sight.

"It looks like something out of a dream…." Kairi whispered Sora nodded; he caught Namine frowning, not in pain, but as if she were trying to remember something.

"Welcome," Kida said forlornly, "to the city of Atlantis."

"I can't believe you let her drug me so you could go play hero," Cloud said angrily, sitting up from the bench he'd been sprawled on as Roxas and the others joined the group.

"Oh stop being such a child," Aerith admonished without looking up from her work as she administered Namine's wound "don't blame your little brother because I drugged you."

"Besides," Tifa added with a smile as she leaned over his shoulder, "I thought you looked pretty cute knocked out like that."

Zack, who was standing a short distance away leaning against a wall, raised an eyebrow, "you scare me."

"Oh she scares everyone, she used to beat up the boys at school," Rinoa said with a giggle as Tifa stuck her tongue out.

Roxas just stood quietly looking at his older brother nervously, "Cloud, I'm sorry…I just wanted to make sure you had enough time."

Cloud stared back at him, biting his lip as everyone else watched the pair, finally he scowled and grabbed Roxas, pulling him into a hug, "just don't do that again."

Loz and Yazoo looked at one another, "holy crap," Loz murmured in exaggerated awe. "Cloud hugged someone."

Cloud gave them a finger's salute* before releasing Roxas and laying back down, closing his eyes.

Tifa snorted and shook her head as she sat next to him, "you big dope."

Roxas just sighed and smiled in relief, he went over to another of the benches scattered around the room and sat down.

Sora joined him a moment later. "Are you alright?"

He nodded, looking at the big jacket Sora had draped over his shoulders, "where'd that come from?"

"I had Rinoa stick it in her pack," Sora said a little sheepishly.

Roxas snorted, Sora thus far had managed to keep the jacket well in hand despite the group's trials and constant movement. It was surprising really since Sora, barring animals, was terrible at taking care of anything.

"Where do you think Kida went," he finally asked.

"I guess to see her dad, the king right?"

"I suppose," Roxas fell silent again and then turned to Sora. "Did you see the statues around the city?"

Sora nodded, "yeah. They look kinda familiar."

"Sora, they're the Chimera."

His cousin shrugged a little, "they look like them yes."

"No," Roxas said pointedly, "they _are _the Chimera. Those statues are identical to a lot of the things we've been fighting. There's something wrong here."

Sora smiled, "what was your first hint; the glowing stone animals trying to kill us, the hostile natives, or the ruined city?"

"Sora I'm being serious, I think we're in serious trouble here. For one thing, we still haven't found Ansem's heir and we have no idea where to look, and for another we're sitting in a ruined city whose architecture matches the very things that have been trying to kill us up to now."

"Well," Sora said thoughtfully, "Kida did say that the bearers were key;" he paused and looked blankly for a moment before wincing and trying again. "That the keyblades were important to her people."

"Yeah, and that's what worries me, I don't think its just coincidence that the Chimera are identical to the statues we saw in the city." He pointed to a small carving of a winged creature ensconced above their heads, "I mean tell me that thing doesn't look like it just needs some lighting to attack us."

"You think Kida and her people are behind the Chimera?"

Roxas shrugged at a loss, "I don't know, I wish I did but I really don't. I mean, the statues and the Chimera look the same minus the glowing lights on the Chimera and Kida's people are obviously fighting them but still it just seems too weird to be a coincidence."

"You two noticed it as well," they both jumped and looked up to see Kadaj leaning against a column with a frown on his face.

"What do you think," Roxas asked.

Kadaj shrugged, "I want to find the heir and get the hell out of here before I find out. In either case I don't trust these people and neither should you."

He looked over at them pointedly, "keep an eye on Riku. I'm worried about him."

"Why don't you do it," Roxas asked.

"Because he hangs around you two more than he does myself and the others," Kadaj scowled and moved away. "Just do it."

Sora and Roxas looked at one another before Roxas sighed and closed his eyes, great; they were spying on each other now. He had to hand it to Kadaj though, he didn't disagree: the sooner they found the heir and left the continent the better. Though considering that their ship was sunk and they were without a crew…well yeah, it wasn't exactly an encouragement to think of their chances for not getting out of here. He looked over at Namine; Aerith was having far more luck with her than she had with Cloud. For whatever reason Kida's crystal seemed to have done more harm than good in Namine's case but thankfully the wound wasn't anything that Aerith couldn't heal even though she'd had to put Namine under with some anesthetic to ease the pain.

"She'll be fine," Sora said with a reassuring smile.

Roxas couldn't help it; he smiled too, damn Sora for being contagious. "Thanks, yeah Aerith can heal anything."

"Company," Yazoo called, everyone looked up as Kida and a group of guards came into the chamber.

"The bearers come with me, the rest of you wait here."

"Right," Loz said with a smart smile, "because we have complete faith in your intentions."

"You don't have much choice," Kida said quietly, the guards with her fingered their spears.

"Neither do you," Rinoa said warningly, holding her arm at an angle and letting lighting course over it warningly.

Roxas thought Rinoa's show was a bit much but it certainly did get the point across as she sighed and considered before finally speaking, "very well, three of you may come in addition to the bearers."

Zack stepped forwards, "me, Tifa you too," he turned to Kadaj. "Care to join us?"

Kadaj shrugged, "certainly, it beats sitting here wondering what they're talking about."

Roxas didn't think of himself as an idiot, certainly—despite Hayner's best attempts—his teachers didn't think so either; Tifa was, with possible competition from Loz, the best hand to hand fighter they had and Kadaj was probably the fastest swordsman though arguably either Zack or Cloud was the best; Roxas was understandably partial in that assessment. Zack had picked the ones who'd best serve them if it came down to a fight in a confined space. He hoped Zack was just being cautious or paranoid as the seven of them; Namine was still unconscious, followed Kida out of their building. It was a simple cylindrical dome separate from the other crumbling buildings around it. It might have been well suited for a prison if it weren't for the fact that there were no doors to bar entry or exit. He'd already been through the crumbling city once when Kida had shown them where their group was staying but he'd been fairly tired then. Now he was able to take the time to look around despite still feeling beat. There was amble evidence that this had once been a massive city, probably larger than Hollow Bastion, Twilight or Traverse; and considering that Traverse had been the largest trading hub in the kingdom prior to the assault by Xehanort that was saying quite a lot.

He paid particular attention to the statues that were everywhere, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising. Aside from the fact that they weren't glowing they could very well be Chimera. What struck him as oddest about the city weren't the Chimera-like statues, it was the lack of people; true the buildings were overgrown and crumbling, but there was almost no one anywhere. As they wandered through the ruins, he spotted the occasional group of people but they were always in small groups of no more than a dozen or so and they rarely paid any attention to the armed procession as it moved through the city. These groups were always gathered around shattered buildings with nets; two or three people would go into the building and come back out with fish and various other aquatics. Roxas assumed that the waterway that originated from the central structure in the city was feeding these buildings somehow, from underground was the best bet, and that was how the people of the city got their food since he hadn't seen any farm land or anything else like that.

Their journey progressed quietly towards the center of the city; it wasn't a direct route since much of the city was collapsed or collapsing. There was a path of sorts that the Atlanteans must have created over the centuries; he tried to recall when exactly the Lost Continent had been 'lost' but all he really knew was that it had been within the last thousand years. One day trade and communication with the continent had just stopped. Neither the Northern nor Southern continent had heard anything since then; all attempts to remedy that had been met with much the same result as this current expedition. Roxas didn't know though if there were other survivors from those expeditions lying around and it remained to be seen how Morrigan had managed to get herself and her son here safely.

They stopped at the base of the tiered pyramid that dominated the city, and Kida turned to them all.

"You are about to meet our King," she looked at Zack, Kadaj, and Tifa pointedly here. "Try to show more respect than you have been."

*No, Cloud did not expressly flip them off, I used that term specifically because it can mean any of the many fingered salutes and whichever you know and use feel free to insert there.


	20. Chapter 17

Sora had to admit, the Atlantean King was nothing like Ansem had been. The latter had exuded confidence and command over those around him all the while seeming warm and calm amidst the chaos he had lived in. Sora felt that even at his death, Ansem wouldn't have been any less…well wise. Of course he had no way of knowing for sure. King Kashekim Nedak—yet another Atlantean name he didn't even want to pronounce—was not only ancient but bent over and haggard looking. He might have looked like Yen Sid with his great flowing beard and silvery hair, if his eyes had held the same life as the sorcerer's. With his tired features and blind eyes though, King Nedak seemed nothing like Ansem, and seemed to be in complete opposition to Sora's image of what a king should be. Despite his sunken milky white eyes, he still gazed at the gathered party and frowned, speaking the Atlantean tongue and leaning back on his covered throne—it looked more like a nest with all its blankets and pillows strewn about behind him—Kida responded to his query and he nodded quietly before sighing heavily and standing with the help of a heavy walking stick.

"I am sorry that some of your numbers were injured; my kingdom, for what remains of it, is a very dangerous place."

No one spoke as he continued to lean on his staff and gaze, as best as a blind man could, out at them.

"My daughter tells me that you four, and a fifth not here, are the key bearers."

Since this seemed to require a response, Sora nodded, and then remembered himself, "she was one of the injured."

"I see she is well in hand I trust?"

Zack smiled, "the best."

The King nodded and settled back down onto his cushions, "you are not here to help us though; even if the bearers are who we've been waiting for all these years."

Sora looked over at the others, Riku was silent, Roxas and Kairi looked as confused as he was by the King's statement. Kida had said something similar back at the pass when they'd been holding the line against the Chimera for the others.

"We came here searching for someone, the son of a woman who was exiled here some time ago," Tifa spoke up.

There was a low murmur that ran its course through the assembled Atlanteans before the King raised his hand and silence settled again.

"You seek the Corsairs then."

Sora felt the sudden hostility then and felt his hand flex involuntarily. He willed himself to keep the keyblade dormant; he didn't want to hurt anyone here; even if they were making him nervous.

"Corsairs, you mean pirates?"

The King shrugged, sighing tiredly, "they call themselves the Corsairs, but they are pirates yes; and they are the ones who came here from beyond the sea. Though whether this group is the one you are seeking I cannot guarantee. However they are the only outlanders on this part of the continent that I know of."

"What about the rest of the continent," Kadaj pressed, curiosity etched in his tone.

"You've traveled through our land, how far do you believe we range from Atlantis with the Chimera waiting to hunt us?"

"Your party certainly came far enough to find us," Kadaj returned calmly.

The King frowned and leaned forward on his throne, his eyes narrowing as he gazed towards Kadaj with his milky eyes as he stood with a faint smile on his features.

"I think you know more than you might want to tell us," he continued idly. "I hardly think it chance that your architecture matches the Chimera we've been fighting."

Sora looked from Kadaj, to the King and back again; he wondered who else had noticed the statues around the city? He thought it was just a coincidence, but what if there was a connection? He looked over at Kida and was surprised to see the expression on her face, no doubt about it, she wanted to skewer Kadaj.

"Kadaj really put his foot in the King's face didn't he," Namine whispered.

Sora nodded agreement and wondered if they were going to end up fighting their way out of the King's presence when his irked subjects tried to kill Kadaj.

"I will tell you where to find the Corsairs, and you may make your arrangements with them," King Nedak finally said in a very tired voice. "However I would make a request."

"That being," Zack asked cautiously.

"Two of the bearers remain here with us to assist us."

"You can't expect us to—" Tifa was forestalled as Zack held up a hand.

"What do you need their help for? You haven't exactly been forthcoming on what it is they can do for you."

"You are right, that the Chimera are ours, at least as far as they resemble our architecture. Something is animating our cities, creating armies of these golems. They have been systematically wiping us out since our continent was first lost to the world. The bearers, according to an oracle now sadly dead, are critical to stopping these abominations before they wipe us out."

"So," Kadaj said shrewdly, "we scratch your back you scratch ours?"

The King frowned; it occurred to Sora that he might not understand the reference, "he means it's a trade."

The King nodded, "yes, a trade."

Zack and Kadaj looked at one another briefly, before exchanging a nod, "one condition," Zack said firmly.

The King canted his head curiously, "what would that be?"

"We're leaving some others behind as well, I'm not leaving anyone anywhere without company."

The King's eyes narrowed as he drew in a deep, considering breath before sighing and nodding again looking very tired.

"Very well, choose which two will remain, and who shall stay with them. I will have the information you require, as well as any provisions, ready by tomorrow morning."

Zack bowed, "your majesty is very kind."

"So who are we sending where," Leon asked no one in particular.

"I volunteer to stay here," Riku said instantly.

Kadaj blinked and eyed his cousin quietly, "I'm sure you do. Alright," he said reluctantly as he looked at the others. "We need two bearers here."

Namine had regained consciousness during the audience with the King and smiled thinly, "I'm still injured, I should stay as well."

Roxas shifted nervously and looked at her; she gave him a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine, you're the one going off into the jungle remember?"

If Riku could have, it appeared to Roxas that he would be glaring at Namine but instead he simply looked sullen. Roxas still remembered Riku's commentary to Namine before and wasn't exactly thrilled about leaving the pair of them together. Kairi or Sora seemed like a far better choice; though Namine did have a point, she was still injured.

"So who wants to go back into the jungle," Loz asked in far too cheerily a tone.

"I'm going," Cloud said when Zack raised an eyebrow Cloud glared at him. "My arm is fine, even if it wasn't I can fight just as well with one arm."

"But can you run around in a jungle," Yazoo asked tiredly, "and don't start up with that brotherly duty business; you're going to make me ill."

"Why don't we decide on who will be staying first," Aerith suggested, "I volunteer, I want to keep an eye on Namine and I might be able to learn something about these people as well."

Zack hesitated but nodded, "alright, Kadaj, Loz, Yazoo, what about you?"

Yazoo shrugged, "I want to get out of here. Don't expect me to stay put."

"We'll stay behind," Kadaj said with a pointed glance at Riku as he put a hand on Loz's shoulder who frowned but gave a brief nod.

"Alright," Zack glanced over at the remaining members, "Cloud you're staying." Cloud opened his mouth but Zack cut him off, "that is an order. You are staying here with Aerith and getting fully healed. You'll just slow us down otherwise and we need to move quickly."

Cloud made as if to protest further but Zack shouted him down, "do not cry at me about your brother. I'm leaving Aerith here in the middle of whatever mess we've gotten ourselves into. You can let your brother grow up a little."

Everyone was silent, surprised by Zack's outburst and the emotion behind it. After the silence dragged on for several more seconds Aerith stood and put her arms around Zack's waist as she leaned against his back.

"I'll be fine."

He nodded, holding her arms tenderly, "you'd better be."

The moment passed and he looked back to the remaining unassigned members of the team, Tifa looked from Cloud to Roxas and then to Zack.

"Zack, you stay here. I'm going with the jungle team."

He blinked and eyed her, "why?"

She glanced at Cloud again, taking his hand.

"He'll want to know his brother is being taken care of."

Zack looked at Cloud, who still looked sullen but nodded agreement, "alright, I'll stay," somehow Roxas didn't think that Zack minded staying behind with Aerith but no one was going to say anything about that. "The jungle team will be Leon, Rinoa, Yazoo, and Tifa. The city team members are Cloud, Aerith, Kadaj, Loz and myself."

There were no further objections, even from Cloud, the group dispersed around their jail-room. Roxas took the time to cross over to his brother, biting his lip nervously.

"Are you alright? You haven't been acting like yourself."

Cloud nodded, "I'm fine."

Roxas didn't say anything, frowning and sitting next to his brother; "Zack might be right you know…I am growing up."

Cloud snorted and nodded thoughtfully, "guess I'm just on edge since we got here and haven't been able to do anything thanks to this arm."

He moved the arm and winced gingerly, Roxas couldn't help smiling.

"And you wanted to run around in the jungle with us."

"Quiet," Cloud responded, but he was smiling at least. "Go eat. I'll be fine."

Roxas nodded and stood, Tifa smiled and winked as he left, "don't worry. I'll take care of both of you."

Cloud snorted and shook his head; she eyed him with mock insult. "What was that for?"

"Nothing," he said innocently, and then squirmed indignantly as she made a grab at his ribs.

Roxas joined Sora, Namine, and Kairi in their dinner. Looking at the fish-like meat and unfamiliar vegetables nervously; he glanced at Sora and was unsurprised to find his cousin wolfing down his food with no apparent ill effect. Sora swallowed and went to get seconds just as Roxas sat down and took his own bowl and odd utensil. It was odd because it seemed to combine aspects of a fork, spoon, and knife all in one. He took a stab of the meat and scooped up some vegetables before taking a bite. Chewing gingerly, he swallowed the bland meat and followed it with the vegetables; instantly his mouth lit on fire and he found himself panting for breath.

Sora sat down next to him and grinned, "good isn't it?"

"I guess," Roxas gasped, chugging his water. "What is that?"

Sora shrugged, "I don't know. But it tastes really good all together!"

Roxas looked around to find other members of their group nursing their food to varying degrees, almost all of them had been watching Sora. It occurred to him that his cousin had unwittingly played the group's guinea pig.

Roxas smiled, "Sora you really are a goof."

"What," Sora asked curiously.

"You just dug right into it without as much as a thought."

Sora blinked and looked at his bowl before shrugging, "well they said they need us right? They're not going to poison us before we help them."

For a moment Roxas was speechless, had Sora just had a serious thought about their situation? He'd actually considered that the food could have been poisoned and had then reasoned that since they hadn't helped the locals it wouldn't be.

Sora must have seen his expression because he grinned, "oh don't look so serious. I didn't really think it'd be poisoned. Though I've got to say your expression was worth the joke."

Roxas scowled, "you frighten me. Sometimes I think you might actually be getting smarter."

Sora smiled, "just watch. I'll start beating you at school yet."

Namine and Kairi were both giggling, though Namine stopped and winced, holding her flank.

"Are you going to be okay," Kairi asked, mirroring Roxas' own thoughts.

She nodded, "I'll be fine. You're the ones going out there remember? Besides I think I need to spend time with Riku. We all need to trust each other and he really does not trust me." Her face feel painfully, "not that I really can blame him. If our situations were reversed I wouldn't trust me either."

She looked at Roxas then with a sad smile, and he remembered how he'd reacted when he'd realized that she knew more about the situation than she'd let on. He wanted to trust her though, and was going to keep on trusting her. They settled in and enjoyed their meal, and Roxas had to admit, that once the initial shock of the food was over; it did taste pretty good.


	21. Chapter 18

"Sora?"

Sora shifted against Kairi, pulling the blanket and his father's jacket closer around himself.

"Come on kiddo, wake up."

Something warm touched his shoulder and he jumped, the gentle touch on his shoulder turned to a forceful one and kept him from leaping out of bed. Another hand pressed over his mouth. His eyes were wide and staring as his father removed the restraining hand from his shoulder and put it to his lips.

"Don't wake up;" he said gently, "I can't do this if you do. Don't shout either, they'll hear you."

Sora frowned but nodded as his father removed his hand, wasn't he awake? He looked around; everyone and everything seemed to be in a fog, the others seemed to be sleeping, as if Auron wasn't standing in the middle of the room. Only his father and his own body seemed acute and defined. Was he asleep?

Auron shook his head, snapping his fingers "stop that. If you think about it too much you will wake up."

"How—"

"Not now, give yourself seventy years or so then I'll explain it."

Sora's mind registered something and he frowned, "I'd be dead."

Auron smiled, "something's are best left to the dead."

His father's words made Sora shiver nervously but he didn't flinch as his dad's—he hated to say ghost—sat next to him with a smile at Kairi.

"She's growing up, hang onto her Sora. You've got something special."

Sora swallowed, "I thought I wouldn't see you again."

"And you won't," his father responded instantly, "not in the flesh. I can't come back but I can help when the heart lets me. Remember the beach?"

Sora recalled the voices in his head, and memories flashed back from his childhood.

"Mom too," he asked disbelievingly.

His father just smiled, "Sora, listen to me carefully. There will be a man with this heir you're looking for. His name is Ector; he won't want to trust you, he's a stubborn oaf. Give him my name and he should at least listen."

He patted the jacket still covering Sora and Kairi, she shifted as if she'd felt his touch but didn't open her eyes.

"He's the leader of the people you seek, so you will need his help to make all this work."

Something occurred to Sora then that he'd never asked before, "Namine said something about you being a monk, when Red died." He shifted nervously, he'd never asked his father before about his past; it hadn't mattered. Now though, after all that had happened it suddenly seemed more important.

His father smiled sadly, "yes. I was for a while. Ector was a friend in the Order. So many of the Order joined Morrigan's side in the war that what was left was disbanded and formed the basis for the Elites so most people don't know about them anymore."

Sora looked at his father for more, and after a while Auron continued, "I joined Morrigan's side originally, following the order and Ector." He sighed, "then I met your mother. She wasn't anyone in particular; the war had simply touched her town and it was pure chance that we met. I fell in love; she was terrified of me, believing that I was a traitor. Which I admit was true." Auron's face broadened in a sad, but fond, smile. "I began seeing—following—her while we stayed in her town, and eventually she not only accepted me as a person, but fell in love herself. Then I found out that my abilities had gotten me into trouble. A high priest concluded that I'd be an excellent husband for his daughter, I refused of course. I found myself a traitor in both camps," he chuckled, his eyes sparkling. "Your mother hid me with the dirty laundry for three days before we ran."

"Ran," Sora frowned; he didn't see his father running from anyone.

"Of all things, she took me to Ansem's forces. I don't think I've ever seen someone bully their way past so many soldiers without carrying a weapon. Maleficent nearly incinerated us though," he gave Sora a dubious glance;" you know her temper."

Sora nodded, yes, he knew her temper and her tolerance levels for anyone that was not Ansem.

"Fortunately the King was there, and even though I was wearing a uniform more common to the enemy he listened to Aria as she spoke of my skills and what a good person I was. At the end of it, the King turned to me and told me two things: the first was that I had better marry your mother as soon as possible. The second was that I was going to join his new Elites or be executed for treason."

Sora's eyes widened, "_that's _how you and mom got married? The King threatened to kill you?"

"I think marrying your mother was a separate stipulation but yes. That's how we met and what happened because of it. I brought the prayers and battle hymns I'd learned in the Order to the Elites. It never caught on; the religious aspect of the Order was expunged from the Elites as unnecessary, but the monks who had joined their ranks as I had remembered them. Ector never did change sides, eventually he stood by Morrigan when she was exiled and came here with her."

"Dad, can I see mom?"

Auron blinked, a pained smile crossing his features as he nodded. "Alright, but understand Sora that you can't have the dead back. I've been cruel to you with my comings and goings, and now here I am again, even if it is to help I'm sorry I'm putting you through all this."

Sora nodded, "I understand."

His father didn't look like he believed him, and to be honest with himself Sora wasn't sure he believed it either; but if he could see his mother again…then he wanted to.

Auron stood and closed his eyes, as if focusing for a spell. He took a deep breath, and then opened his eyes. Sora watched as another figure formed in the same acute lines of his father besides him, and after a moment more of focusing his mother stood in front of him, the same honeyed blonde color in her hair that Sora's own had started to turn this past year. Sora swallowed nervously as his mother knelt in front of him, looking down at Kairi, her hand running through Kairi's hair with a smile.

"She's very beautiful Sora, I'm glad you found someone."

He tried to speak, but the words were caught in his throat, Auron frowned at him slightly but remained silent, his mother looked up at his father with a fond frown.

"Oh don't look at him like that, Auron. He's our son, he can miss us."

Auron's face softened and he nodded as Aria put her arms around Sora, the touch was warm and Sora couldn't hold back his tears or quiet sobs. His mother held him tenderly, letting him cry.

"You've grown up so fast; I remember when I could still carry you. I doubt I could lift you anymore."

She leaned back, holding his shoulders as he wiped his eyes, "how is Squall? He doesn't have your connection to the heart," she looked sadly over at his brother. "I can't reach him or even watch him usually."

"Leon's fine," Sora said, "he's in the Elites now…and he has Rinoa."

His mother's face broke out in a radiant smile, "you're all growing up so fast. I wish I could see it with you. Tara isn't fussing over you too much I hope?"

Sora shook his head, "Aunt Tara's great she—" he stopped at the expression on his mother's face, "mom?"

She shook her head, "I miss you and your brother so much Sora. I'm so happy that you survived and are living your lives. I wish you could just have some peace. The heart though has its own plans. None of us can stop it; we just live as best we can."

"I'm fine mom, I really am, I promise;" no he wasn't, not right then but for his mother he'd say anything to make her smile.

And smile she did, "I know Sora, I know. Now you have to go back to sleep, lay down and rest. Your father told you about Ector?"

He nodded and she smiled, "good. Now rest Sora, and tell Squall that I love him."

She put her hand on his chest and eased him back down besides Kairi, his father came over and ruffled his hair as if he were tucking him in like he used to when Sora was tiny.

"Go get them kiddo, and maybe the heart will finally let all of us get some rest."

"I love you both," Sora said tearfully.

They nodded, standing together as they began to fade, "we know," his mother whispered. "We love you too."

Sora woke with a start, sitting bolt upright, gasping as he looked around the chamber. The others were still asleep, except for Kairi who sat up besides him.

"What is it?"

"I—" he looked around again, everything was back in focus, his parents were gone. "Nothing…just a dream," his words felt hollow as they echoed through his mind. Had it been a dream? He didn't think so…didn't the heart communicate with them in dreams as well?

Kairi watched him for a moment before wrapping her arms around him, pressing her lips against his, he responded instantly his own arms embracing her as their lips sparked.

"I'm here Sora, we're here for each other."

He nodded, "I miss them; my parents." He added when she frowned.

Now she nodded, her eyes softening in comprehension.

"I miss my parents too," she hesitated but then smiled, "I talk to them in dreams though…and sometimes I even see them."

Sora's eyes widened, "you too," he whispered disbelievingly.

She leaned against him, holding him tenderly, "see? We really aren't alone, she pressed her palm against his chest and sudden;y he became very aware of his own heartbeat.

"They're right here, with us, always."

She looked up at him, and leaned against his shoulder as she spoke softly.

"We'll all be together again Sora, one day. Right now though, we've have to live and let them rest. It's our turn," a smile crossed her features, "so let's make all of our parents proud."

He nodded, feeling his emotions bolster, "sorry I woke you up."

Her smile turned mischievous and she giggled quietly, "I know how you can make it up to me."

She tugged him back down beneath the blanket and onto their futon with that same smile and he felt himself blushing as she continued to smile.

"I love you Sora."

He nodded, leaning his head against hers and pulling her closer, their bodies pressing against each other fitting perfectly, he wondered if this was what his parents had felt when they'd fallen in love as he answered.

"I love you too, and we will them proud, all of them."

She nodded, closing her eyes and snuggling against him, "and this is the easy part. We've still got our entire lives ahead of us."

Held together so closely, Sora listened to their hearts as he began drifting back into sleep, holding her hand tightly; he could feel both their pulses, their heartbeats, throbbing in that grip and as he listened the beating began to run in tune. Yes, they would make everyone proud, and then they'd have their lives to live. He remained that way for long minutes, the night seemingly endless as he felt Kairi's gentle breathing against him and his own against hers. He remembered what his parents had said and his mind wandered deep into the future. He hadn't thought about what would happen when the heart was finally finished with them or what he'd do. All of them were in odd situations; himself, Roxas, Kairi, Namine, and Riku. They all had a purpose now, but what about afterwards? It never occurred to him that there might not be an afterwards, his mind couldn't imagine, nor would it accept, that any of them might die.

Sora thought of the life he could live with Kairi, and his mind eased at the idle thoughts. It seemed so easy compared to all this, and yet Kairi seemed to think that living their normal lives would be the real adventure. He thought of his Aunt and Uncle, raising four children, two of them not theirs; maybe it was an adventure. Then again, how hard could it be? If his parents and Roxas' parents could raise a family then he could certainly manage it. After all this a normal life could hardly be challenging. His eyes opened and he looked in the dim luminescence from the walls at Kairi, her eyes were open too and she was regarding him warmly. She leaned her forehead against his and whispered something he didn't understand, but both their heartbeats intensified at the words whatever they were. Quietly, she slid beneath him, breaking the grip that had seemed so essential moments before. As he watched the rise and fall of her chest though, he realized it wasn't the touch that let them beat in unison.

He remembered a question he'd asked Leon a year earlier and his brother's answer. As he and Kairi slid out of their clothes, he decided that Leon had been right; there wasn't any hurry. It would all come naturally when they were ready and they were, in that moment the world faded away and neither of them cared that they were far from home, far from their lives, in a strange land in a crowded room.

Author's Note: I see dead people….and so do Kairi and Sora apparently. I know I promised I'd keep Auron dead (and I have) but really I'm too silly and twisted not to make things complicated. I'm waiting for the tango comments and fan backlash on that ending scene.


	22. Chapter 19

Morning came slowly, the collapse that the city rested in meant that the sun had to rise a good deal before significant amounts of light crept into the building the group was staying in. That didn't stop most of the adults from waking up well before Roxas did, by the time he was awake he found himself surrounded by a quiet buzz as those preparing to leave and head back into the jungle checked their things for the coming trip and those staying shuffled their gear around to accommodate for the sudden increase in space. Despite the somewhat spartan disposition of the structure it did actually have plenty of room for all fourteen of them surprisingly. What it might have been used for in the past was beyond Roxas but he didn't think it had been built as a guest room despite the ample room. Considering the dilapidated state of much of the city though, he didn't think there would be many inns or hotels to stay in; their stay in the building was probably just a matter of convenience considering how close it was to the center of the city and the King.

He didn't move for a long while, Namine was curled up next to him and he didn't want to wake her before he had to; so instead he watched the movements of the others. It was eerie how exacting the Elites moved around the room. They moved with a precision and purpose that could only have been instilled from their training he supposed. No words were exchanged and in fact Rinoa and Aerith—who had no military training—were standing off to the side and letting those with it take care of the reorganizing. Riku was oddly taking part in the movements as well—despite his eyesight—with the same quiet efficiency. At first this puzzled Roxas but then it occurred to him that he'd had similar training from his Aunt and Uncle; and that despite his inability to visually sense the world he'd proven adept at navigating in it. Besides him Namine stirred, getting up and yawning as she looked around at the others' movement before looking at Roxas.

"Morning," she said with a gentle smile.

"Hey," Roxas responded with a slight blush, she was adorable when she was just waking up; he loved watching the transition from partial to full wakefulness.

Loz knelt down next to them with a smile, "that's another pair of lovebirds up and about, here."

He handed them their armor and the pair of them were quickly on their feet and securing their various zippers, straps, and buckles that held the black armor all together. While he was dressing he looked over at Sora and was unsurprised to see his cousin still asleep he was surprised to see Kairi sleeping on top of him. Not just leaning on him, but completely on top of him. It made Roxas pause for a moment in his suiting and allowed Namine to finish for him as he continued to wonder at his cousin's predicament. Leon knelt down besides Sora then, and gave him a gentle nudge, Sora looked up at his brother with a bleary smile.

"Morning Sora," Leon said with a grin. He looked at Kairi as she rolled off of Sora and lifted herself up. "You two get enough sleep?"

Both of them flushed red and looked at one another with secretive smiles; Leon chuckled.

"Time to get up and have some breakfast before we have to head out," he handed them their armors and patted Sora on the back with a wink.

Roxas frowned and watched as Sora and Kairi put their armors on, they seemed to be staying closer to each other than was usual. And when Sora leaned against Kairi and kissed the back of her neck without a second thought he felt his own face redden. After they'd all gotten their armors on they gathered around the recently refilled food basin at the center of the room. Like last night they had the same bowls and utensils sitting around the basin. Roxas continued to watch Sora and Kairi curiously, watching how closely they sat together among other things. He was so engrossed in watching their behavior that he didn't hear when a group including Kida entered the building until Namine nudged his shoulder.

"Roxas," she chided, "is everything alright? You're being a little absent minded."

He shook his head, "nothing, just Sora and Kairi seem close today."

She blinked at him and smiled, holding his hand with a gentle squeeze.

"Of course they are," she said with a smile. "They are dating you know, so are we."

He nodded, wondering about Leon's comments as well but decided it wasn't important—or his business—and turned with Namine to listen to what Kida was saying to Zack who had stopped to speak with her.

"—the Corsairs are three days from here; you'll need to leave through the western caverns."

"Can you give us a map," Zack asked, eyeing her. "Unless you intend to send a guide with our people they're not going to have much luck find this place."

Kida handed him a scroll, he opened it and looked at her quizzically, "this is your idea of a map?"

Yazoo paused and peered over Zack's shoulder and started sniggering. Frowning, Roxas joined them and blinked in disbelief. The 'map' looked more like a child's doodle of a treasure map. Complete with a big 'X' at their destination. There was no writing anywhere on the map, it was all hand drawn pictures of land marks and the like.

Kida stiffened, "we have lost much since the destruction. This is what we have."

Zack looked skeptical; he called Leon over, Tifa followed too.

"Will you be able to find your way with this?"

Leon started laughing, "yeah no problem."

"What's so funny," inquired Tifa as she looked at the map. "That is the saddest map I've ever seen."

"Yeah," Leon concurred, still chuckling as everyone looked at him in bewilderment. He looked over at Sora. "Hey Sora come here and look at this!"

Sora left Kairi by the food and joined them as Leon took the map from Zack and showed it to Sora.

"Remember this?"

Sora's eyes lit up and Roxas was reminded just how close the brothers were as they shared the same stupid grin that was so common on Sora's face but relatively rare on Leon's.

"It's like the maps Riku's dad used to draw," Sora said. "This will be easy!"

Roxas looked at Namine, baffled. She shrugged with an amused smile.

"Riku's father used to take things he found while he was fishing and hide them on the smaller islands and then draw a map for us. Most of the kids that lived in our neighborhood played the game."

"The maps were terrible," Kairi added, she'd come to join the group.

"So my dad wasn't an artist," Riku called. "You still played."

Leon smirked and rolled the map up, "this will be fine. If we can find a piece of junk on a string of island we can find a settlement in a jungle."

Yazoo blinked and looked around at the former islanders, "you're all insane."

Kadaj snorted, "as if we're much better. You forget what mother and father did to us."

His brother looked at him in a hurt manner, "hey that had use."

"When we were five?"

Yazoo frowned and looked away, Loz smiled.

"Mother and father are tough like that."

Kadaj looked at him and shook his head.

"I think I've made my point."

Kida looked around at their group, her expression unreadable though Roxas wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she was thinking something along the lines of: 'crazy foreigners' which he had to admit was something he'd label their group with.

"When will you leave," she asked finally.

Leon looked around at those who would be going on the jungle team; Roxas felt a little embarrassed to admit that he was one of those that weren't ready, along with Sora and Kairi.

"We'll need an hour," Leon said looking back to Kida.

She nodded, "I'll be back in an hour then to escort you to the edge of the city and the caverns."

Kida left them to their preparations; Zack tapped Leon on the shoulder.

"Good luck out there."

Tifa smiled, "good luck in here. You've got to deal with the natives."

"What's so bad about that," Loz asked.

Tifa's smile broadened, "you can't kill them if they annoy you. We can kill the Chimera all we want."

Loz looked from Tifa to Rinoa, "okay are we sure they're related?"

The eerie blue glow cast by the crystal lanterns the group carried sent bizarre shadows flickering on the cavern walls as they proceeded through the rock catacombs. Kida had assured them that so long as they followed the path there was no danger of getting lost; and the Chimera didn't come into the caves though she didn't know why. None of the travelers cared for the reason; they were satisfied with the quiet. Yazoo was in the lead, following the path which wasn't so much a path as a mural. Something had carved into the rock face revealing more of the shimmering blue crystal beneath the dull surface. The trail of carvings etched into the cave walls was their pathway to the other side. Sora had asked the inevitable question: why was the crystal so prominent and what did the carvings signify? Kida had been tight lipped, merely wishing them luck and safe journeys; telling them cryptically not to worry about the crystals. Of course Sora was hardly satisfied and had thus far spent the length of their journey studying the carvings with childlike eagerness.

"Find anything interesting," Roxas asked as Sora paused to investigate another patterning of crystal.

Sora shook his head, "nothing specific actually. It's pretty random actually, almost like animal trails."

"What kind of animal leaves a glowing trail," Yazoo asked from the front of their column.

"It isn't the trail that's glowing," Sora said informatively. "It's the crystal beneath the rock. Something is eating away at the rock and revealing the crystal."

Roxas smiled a little, "you can't pay attention in school but as soon as animals get involved you're an expert."

Ahead, Leon looked over his shoulder with a grin.

"Yep, that's Sora. You should know that by now Roxas, you've been living with him all this time."

Kairi giggled, "it's nice to know that something's never change."

Sora flushed and looked back to the rock with exaggerated interest, "I'm not that bad."

"Yes," Roxas chided with a smile, "you are."

Tifa, Leon, Rinoa, and Kairi all chuckled, even Sora smiled at the teasing, from the front of the group Yazoo waved their map over his shoulder.

"I'm glad everyone is having fun while I'm trying to make sense of this stupid map."

He continued to trace his hand along the glowing wall as they traveled, occasionally glancing back at Leon. He hadn't mentioned their parents to him. He wasn't entirely sure how to say that he'd spoken with two people who were supposed to be dead. Then again considering that until a year ago their father had been running around with what seemed much gusto that their mother and father talking to Sora now wouldn't seem that strange. To tell the truth he was still a little embarrassed talking to Leon. Somehow, his brother had known first thing this morning what he and Kairi had did the night before. Thinking about it brought a blush to Sora's face, and he quietly reached down and took Kairi's hand. She looked down at the hand, and her gaze met his and locked sharing their mutual excitement at the touch.

"What's that ahead," Tifa called from the rear.

"Offhand, it would look like a chandelier," Yazoo said.

"It's made out of rock," Roxas pointed out as he came to a stop besides Sora and Kairi.

Sora looked up at the hanging structure curiously; it did look a bit like an ornate chandelier, an inverted cone hanging from the ceiling with dozens of holes punched into it like a honeycomb. Yazoo reached up and touched the point, the only portion of it he could reach, his gloved hand tracing the stone curiously.

His expression darkened as he drew his hand away, "it's hot."

"Hot," Tifa echoed questioningly.

He looked back at her with a scowl, "yes hot, h-o-t. Would you like me to write it down for you?"

"Enough," Leon interjected before anyone actually started fighting. "Let's go, we've still got a ways before we're out of here."

"Wait," Sora said as they began to pass beneath the rock chandelier. "Do you hear that?"

Everyone paused and listened, there was a buzzing sound, it started out very small and minute; hardly noticeable. Then it began to get louder, Rinoa gave a shout and Sora looked up. The chandelier had started glowing, and the buzzing was coming from it. It was a nest filled with—for lack of a better word—fireflies. And they actually looked like they were on fire too.

"Everybody run," shouted Rinoa, she cast her hand out and the hive was engulfed in a bubble-like field. "It won't hold for very long, go!"

They didn't need more encouragement; any thought of following the map was lost as they all ran. Much to Sora's surprise, Yazoo was not only faster than everyone else, but well ahead of them. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see the barrier Rinoa had thrown up burst like a soap bubble and the now furious glowing insects come pouring out of it; the rock around them began to glow red hot before cooling and showing off more of the blue crystal. That answered the curiosity about the crystal etchings; the bugs burned away the top layer of rock! Now they just had to figure out what to do about the bugs themselves.


	23. Chapter 20

"Any bright ideas," Leon shouted, he and Yazoo had fallen back to the rear and both of their casters were firing ice shots at the pursuing fireflies.

Roxas wasn't sure how effective the shots were, the flaming insects were still coming after all. They'd been running for a little over three minutes, so far they'd kept ahead of the angry swarm which was still coming and burning trails of crystal. Their ability to burn through solid rock explained why the tunnels were so smooth, another volley of caster shots sounded behind him and he increased his speed briefly; he was just glad that the insects were slow. Sora had mentioned something about the fire probably requiring a good deal of energy which meant they couldn't move as fast otherwise. Roxas didn't care how they did it so long as it meant he wasn't going to get burned. He'd been fretting over leaving Cloud, Namine and the others in the city but considering the state of things he imagined they were probably safer than he was at the moment. He wondered if they were still following the path, certainly the rock face was still etched with crystal trails so they must be at least going in the general direction; since Yazoo had what passed for a map it was impossible to ask. They needed to find some way to rid themselves of their pursuers; they couldn't run forever, even at this pace.

"This is getting annoying," growled Tifa. "I'd rather be fighting than running like this."

"You'd rather be fighting most of the time," Rinoa chided her sister. "I can make things interesting though." To everyone else she shouted, "get ready to slide!"

"What are you doing now," Leon yelled.

Rinoa caught Roxas looking at her and winked, "just watch."

She held her hands out in front of her, as if she were running in the dark, she clenched her eyes shut and whispered something. The passage ahead of them froze over rapidly, Roxas' eyes widened as he put his first step down on the ice and slid over. Panicking he clapped a hand to his breast and his armor engulfed him. Rinoa, Tifa, Leon, and Yazoo had been more prepared it seemed as none of them lost their footing despite a series of swears and curses from the later two. Roxas wasn't quite so lucky as he tobogganed along the icy surface, Rinoa kept ahead of the rest of the group and kept the ice flowing along the path. Roxas ended up rotating a full three-sixty and see that the insects were falling even further behind until finally they were just a glow around the last bend in the passage. He banged his head against the side of the passage and went spinning around uncontrollably, nearly knocking over Tifa who leapt over him and landed on her knees, skidding away from him as the tunnel began to slope downwards.

"Everyone hang on," shouted Rinoa as the tunnel increased its slope thirty degrees.

"This is awesome," shouted Sora.

Roxas would have responded but he was too busy yelling as he went down the slope, Leon yelled something at Sora, Roxas only caught the word 'idiot' twice though. He decided, as his stomach, heart, and lungs vied for room his throat that he would agree with whatever Leon was calling his cousin at the moment. Ahead of him Tifa was still on her knees, Cid's armor was doing its job, it might feel and weigh about the same as leather but whatever it was could handle all of this friction without damage. He'd stabilized himself inside his plated armor enough to get her in sight as she extended her wrist blades from their sheaths and began using them to steer herself down the slope. She even looked like she was having fun, considering how he was feeling at the moment he decided that he could and would resent her for that. How Kida had expected them to navigate this without climbing equipment was beyond him. Something shimmered beneath them, reflecting the light of their crystal lamps; he groaned as he realized it was water.

"Hold your breath," bellowed Leon.

Tifa and Rinoa plunged into the water first; Roxas was right behind them, smashing into the surface felt like hitting a wall. It was a permeable wall, but a wall nonetheless; if he hadn't been wearing his armor he'd have had the air knocked out of his lungs. He sank down and felt the current catch him, ripping him along for yet another ride. His head hit a submerged rock at least three times before he finally came to a relative halt as the waterway opened into a broader area. He kicked towards the surface, surprised as he realized that he hadn't needed to breathe with the armor on. Nevermind the headache he was going to have afterwards, the fact that it had kept him from being banged about on the rocks or drowned was enough for him; he'd take headaches any day. He surfaced and his helmet melted away into a mist as he glanced around him, the cavern he was in was filled with water; he rotated and his eyes caught the glimmer of one of the crystal lamps coming to the surface.

Tifa's long dark hair broke the surface; she tossed her head to get it out of her eyes and began kicking furiously towards what appeared to be a rocky shoreline.

"Tifa," Roxas shouted, kicking towards her, feeling his armor melt away from him as he did so.

She rotated, and Roxas saw Rinoa lying limply in her sister's arm as Tifa used her free limb to continue propelling them towards the rocks. "Are you okay Roxas?"

"What about Rinoa," was Roxas' response, he was fine, headache or not. Rinoa looked like she'd hit her head on one of the submerged rocks.

"She's unconscious and bleeding," Tifa responded as Roxas reached her side, he tried to help but Tifa pushed him off. "Don't, you'll sink us," she said sternly. When she saw his face fall her expression and tone softened; "sorry, but you're not trained for this, and she's my sister."

After another pause she stopped and hefted Rinoa in her arms, Roxas was surprised at first but a moment later he too was able to find footing and stand up as Tifa proceeded onto the relatively dry rocks, laying Rinoa out as gently as she could before looking up at Roxas.

"You sure you're alright?"

He nodded, kneeling down besides her and looking at Rinoa's limp form, there were flecks of blood on the stones around her head. His mind flashed back to the aftermath of the battle a year before and he felt himself sicken. He forced the sensation down and bit his lip taking a deep breath to steady his nerves.

"Will she be alright?"

Tifa didn't answer immediately, "I only know basic first aid treatments and spells. If it's something serious…." Her voice trailed off uncertainly and she looked around them hastily as if trying to distract herself. "I suppose you haven't seen any of the others?"

Roxas shook his head, looking back at the subterranean lake hopefully, but there was nothing there in the dim glow of Tifa's lamp to hint that anyone else was going to surface. He wondered if anyone else had suffered Rinoa's fate and was unconscious beneath the water somewhere, the thought sent shivers down his spine and he refocused on Rinoa. She was right here and he could help her, at least he thought he could.

"What do you need to do?"

Tifa reached for her pack and took out a potion, slipping it into her sister's mouth and clapping a hand over it to make sure she swallowed it.

"That's a start," Tifa said lightly, lifting Rinoa up further and turning her head into the light with a wince. The gash on the back of her head didn't look too severe but it was bleeding and she was unconscious. "I can try healing her, but I'm not trained for that, I just don't have the stamina."

"Use me," Roxas offered, she looked at him with a frown.

"You're about as magical as a light bulb."

Roxas' face flushed red, "I can't cast a spell to save my life but you can use me as a battery. Remember Traverse Town?"

Tifa smiled then and nodded, shifting uncomfortably, Roxas and Sora's stunt wasn't the only thing that stood out for her about Traverse Town. The wound might be closed, but having a bolt go through your chest left an impression.

"Alright," she said finally as she gazed at Rinoa, "let's do it. Give me your hand."

Roxas slid his hand into hers as she placed her palm over Rinoa's injury, taking a breath as she closed her eyes and focused.

"Heal," Tifa whispered forcefully, "heal…."

Roxas felt the impact on his body immediately and steeled himself as his energy was sapped by Tifa. Recalling what had happened to Sora when they'd done this he did his best to control the amount of energy he was letting Tifa siphon. If she got burnt out here there would be very little he could do to help her with his limited healing skills, magical or medical. As more and more was sapped out of him, Roxas felt himself weakening but he didn't complain, he wasn't going to stop until Rinoa was healed and Tifa was still holding his hand tightly. The next thing he was aware of was lying in Tifa's arms as she stroked his cheek lightly; her expression was something that seemed out of place on her. She was afraid, but as she realized his eyes were open she breathed a sigh of relief, holding him close.

"Thank goodness, I thought I'd killed you."

"What happened," he asked groggily, too out of it to realize he was pressed against Tifa's chest.

"I closed Rinoa's wound, but you'd…well you'd passed out sitting up. I didn't even realize you were out, you were just kneeling next to me and holding my hand as if nothing had happened."

Roxas gave a slight laugh which was surprisingly hard to do he found, "Cloud would be pretty mad if you killed me."

Tifa gave an uneasy laugh of her own and hugged him tightly, "don't joke about that. I couldn't even think of losing you."

He blinked and lifted his arms, they felt like dead weights but he returned her embrace. Finally she took a deep breath and let him go, ruffling his hair.

"You're practically my little brother now, being responsible for your death would be worse than Cloud being angry at me. The guilt would probably kill me."

Roxas shifted a little uncomfortably, he'd heard Tifa say similar things before of course, but not in quite this manner. He looked over at Rinoa, searching for a change of topic that wasn't an obvious evasion.

"Is she alright?"

Tifa followed his gaze and nodded, "yeah she's fine. The potion stopped the bleeding and thanks to you I closed it up. Not sure when she'll wake up though, guess I have to carry her."

Roxas frowned, "carry her where?"

Tifa nodded behinds him, Roxas turned and saw what she was talking about, a cave opening, leading off into the gloom. Unlike before, there was no crystal etching to illuminate and mark their path. It was up to the lone lamp that Tifa was carrying to do that.

"You think we're still following the right path?"

Tifa stood and shrugged, shifting her pack before lifting Rinoa up with a grunt.

"Yazoo had the map, and who knows where he ended up," she let out a sigh. "Honestly I think we took a wrong turn when we were running from the bugs."

"I didn't see any turn offs," Roxas pointed out.

"I wasn't looking for any," Tifa returned to which Roxas had no answer. Truth be told, neither had he and they could have missed a lot in their headlong dash.

"Can you stand," she asked, holding out a hand.

Roxas was surprised that she was still able to keep Rinoa on her back with just one arm, but then again Tifa's specialty wasn't any particular weapon; it was her entire body. Once that was considered it wasn't that surprising that she was strong enough to one arm Rinoa and still help him up. He took her proffered hand and stood shakily, letting himself find his balance, he took a few tentative steps and scowled at his body's reaction. He considered the headache gripping his skull and the weakened state of being used as a battery and sighed in resignation.

"I can carry you too," Tifa offered sympathetically.

"You've got enough to worry about; I'm just going to use the armor."

He pressed his hand against his chest and his armor shifted over him, encasing him in the soothing coolness that always came with it. His headache and weakness melted away, he didn't know what repercussions that would have later; if he'd be better or worse but for now being able to move seemed more important.

"Is that better?"

He nodded and Tifa laughed, "I want armor that rejuvenates me."

Roxas looked up at her through his helmet, smiling even though she couldn't see it, "ask Cid, I'm sure he could think of something."

She giggled a sound that seemed more in line with Rinoa than Tifa; the smile though certainly seemed well placed.

"No thanks, it might explode while I was wearing it. I'll take a little exhaustion over being blown up any day."

They headed towards the new branch of the tunnel, the lamp bobbing atop Tifa's pack as Rinoa dozed on her sisters back and Roxas walked ahead, his helmet affording him a better view of their path. It seemed linear enough at least; going in what seemed to be a relatively straight line and though he couldn't be sure which direction was the right one after the fall and ride in the underground river it did seem to be going in a vague sense of the right way. Right then though he was more concerned about the others, there'd been no signs of anyone else in the cavern they'd just left, which meant they'd been swept elsewhere. He just hoped that they were all safe and could find their own way out of the caves; of course he and Tifa hadn't found a way out exactly, just a way to go. For now that would have to suffice until they could get a better idea of which way they were going.


	24. Chapter 21

Sora watched quietly as Kairi tended Yazoo's arm, he'd broken it when he'd hit a stalagmite in the waterway. Watching Yazoo's scowling face reminded Sora of a year earlier, when he'd been assisting Aerith while she was caring for the wounded and dying after the battle against Xehanort's Heartless. It had been the first time he'd met any of Riku's cousins though he'd wished he hadn't at the time. At least here, the wound wasn't life threatening.

"Are you done yet," Yazoo grumbled sullenly.

Kairi frowned, though she didn't stop setting his arm as she cast Sora a beleaguered smile.

"Sorry Yazoo, I've never had to do this before."

Yazoo snorted and looked up at Sora.

"Where's your brother anyways, shouldn't he be back by now?"

Sora looked around the small realm of light cast by their lantern, Leon had managed to keep his, while Yazoo's had been washed away when he'd broken his arm. Leon had left his lamp with them and gone to investigate the cave network. That had been what seemed like an eternity ago. Where he was now, was anyone's guess; Sora just hoped he hadn't been hurt and stranded. As if summoned by his thoughts, he heard a quick step off in the shadows. He stood and called forth his keyblade as he looked in the direction of the echoing footfalls.

"Leon, is that you?"

There was no answer, and the footsteps ceased. Sora tensed, looking back at Kairi who had stood as well, helping Yazoo wrestle himself upwards and draw his caster. Somewhere in the shadows a rock rattled, echoing like a clock tower in the silence of the cave.  
"If that's your brother I am going to skin him," snarled Yazoo. "This isn't funny."

Sora shook his head, no that wasn't Leon, he and Cloud were both pranksters it was true but he wouldn't mess around in this situation. The light from their lamp sputtered and then went out, Kairi held out her hand and a blue and green flame flickered into being in her open palm. Lighting up the area immediately around them though to a lesser extent than the lamp had.

"It's getting colder," Yazoo said, shifting in his stance and looking around them tensely.

Sora nodded, licking his lips nervously as the familiar chill swept through the cavern and the darkness became more complete. What were Heartless doing here? The heart was sealed, Xehanort was dead, there shouldn't be any Heartless following them now. Even the naturally occurring Heartless were back to their previously harmless and mundane state and at worst chased someone's cat down an alley or knocked over a trash can in the street. There hadn't been an attack since Xehanort had been defeated and the heart had regained control of them. That seemed like it was about to change as he heard the familiar chattering that always came when Heartless were near. Sora gripped his keyblade, wondering if he should use his armor or not.

"_No."_

"Huh," Sora blinked and looked around. Who had spoken? "Did you say something Kairi?"

She shook her head; Sora looked to Yazoo with a frown. He also shook his head.

"You losing it kid," Yazoo asked in a vague attempt at humor.

Sora returned his attention to their surroundings; he could hear the scraping scrambling of the Heartless' claws and the chattering rattle that they always made but he'd yet to see the eyes that always appeared first.

"Above," Kairi whispered.

Sora looked up, and sure enough there was the pair of eyes darting in and out of view as the Heartless scrambled around stalactites on the ceiling of the cavern. Sora cupped his hand and prepared to call lighting to strike the chattering pair of eyes, or at least dislodge their owner from the ceiling.

"_NO_."

Sora cried out and gripped his head as a splitting pain lanced through his brain, toppling him over onto the ground. His keyblade clattered out of his grip as Kairi called out to him her flame vanishing as she knelt next to him.

"_DO NOT ATTACK IT,"_ boomed the voice in Sora's head; it felt like someone has hitting his skull with a sledgehammer as each syllable echoed.

"Alright," he whimpered helplessly as Kairi tried to help him to his feet.

"_Good,"_ and just like that the voice was silent.

"Is he alright," Yazoo asked in the blackness as he stood over the fallen pair.

"I think so," Kairi said lifting Sora up gently, "Sora?"

He nodded breathlessly, "I'm fine I think."

"What happened," Yazoo asked tersely.

Sora shook his head, and then remembered that it was pitch black, "I don't know."

He retrieved his keyblade and watched as the Heartless dropped down, he still couldn't see anything; but the glowing eyes dropped to the floor and compressed as it impacted with a clattering chatter.

"Kairi, can you give us light again?"

"Oh sorry," she reignited the flame, recreating the limited field of vision.

On the edge of that field, sat a small Heartless with a hand with fingers that ended in claws that were nearly as long as its forearm, it's mouth creaked open, showing three rows of whitened razor edged teeth.

"Is it…_smiling _at us," Kairi murmured uncertainly.

The Heartless' body gave a shake and chattered at them in what almost seemed a merry way, if it weren't for the claws and teeth it might have seemed cute Sora supposed.

"If that's it smiling," muttered Yazoo, "then don't let it frown."

Then the Heartless deflated like a balloon, flattening into the ground as if it were a simple shadow. That shadow raced across the ground towards them, Yazoo shouted in alarm and fired three shots as the Heartless scrambled around them before retreating back to the edge of the light, stretching itself back to its normal proportions and chattering at them once again before hopping out of the light, its glowing eyes and chattering.

"I think," Kairi began uncertainly, "it wants us to follow it."

"Follow a Heartless," Yazoo's tone had been incredulous before, it was well beyond that now. "I thought I was the one that had been hurt."

"No, she's right," Sora supplied. "We should follow it."

"What about your brother," Yazoo snapped angrily.

Sora paused and considered before shrugging, "I bet a Heartless found him too and is going to the same place as this one."

He looked over his shoulder to find Yazoo staring at him, "you're nuts, you're completely insane. One of those things killed Kadaj a year ago remember? And you expect me to follow it around underground in the hopes that it knows where it's going and isn't trying to kill us?"

Sora tried to smile, but the image of Kadaj dying on the table as Paine had held her son's hand kept him from it.

He took a deep breath instead, "yes. I'm going to follow it. Are you coming?"

Yazoo looked from Sora to Kairi to the chattering Heartless before holstering his caster and shucking his pack over his good arm.

"You people owe me for this."

Sora and Kairi gathered up their things as well, all the while the bobbing eyes of the Heartless never left them, floating off in the darkness bobbing back and forth as the Heartless danced from one foot to the other as if it was restless to start off. They retrieved the now useless lamp, though if past experiences were any indication then the light would return once the Heartless had departed. They moved towards it, and the Heartless gave what had to be a delighted crowing chatter and scrambled off into the shadows as they followed after it. They found themselves wandering through a maze work of caverns lit only by Kairi's flickering flame. Sora and of course Kairi could have used their armor to light their own way but neither did; for his part Sora was too taken up in the peculiar behavior of their guide. The darting Heartless would scamper ahead of them, its body vanishing in the gloom before turning its golden yellow eyes towards them showing which way they should proceed, chattering and clattering the entire time almost giddily.

This was a side of the Heartless he'd never heard of nor seen. He'd never realized they could be playful and impish, like some excitable puppy. The fear he'd always felt in their presence previously—no matter how accustomed he'd been to fighting them that fear had always persisted deep inside him—was no longer in evidence even as a shred. In its stead was a calm acceptance and familiarity with this situation which made no sense, but so little of this trip or the events of year prior had made any semblance of sense that this hardly measured as strange. As they continued their winding path Sora actually found that the Heartless' whimsical behavior cute and even endearing.

"They're actually kinda cute when they're not trying to kill you," murmured Kairi besides him, reaching down and taking his hand as she spoke.

The fact that she'd shared his thoughts in exactitude combined with her touch sent ripples through Sora's body as he recalled what it had felt like to surrender everything they both had to each other. He squeezed her hand, holding to it tightly; making a silent promise that it would only be the first of many more such events. Carnal thoughts were pushed aside when a familiar voice cursed somewhere ahead of them.

"Well we found Leon at least," Yazoo said as another string of colorful curses greeted their ears.

"Leon," Sora shouted into the blackness.

"Sora," his brother called back. "Don't come any closer, I'm surrounded by Heartless."

"I know, we're being led by one," Sora called back.

There was a long pause before Leon shouted, "what the hell is going on here? First they get me out of that hole I fell in now they're playing guide dog!"

The sound of Leon's Heartless was evident now, and their own guide had accelerated its pace, as if the sound of its brethren was encouraging it. Sora wondered if the chatters, whistles, and clicks were some form of communication. They sounded far too random for that, but nonetheless their Heartless was responding to the calls of the others as if it understood them perfectly. They finally found Leon amidst a sea of writhing black bodies, white teeth, and golden eyes that melted away as the trio approached and closed again once they'd joined Leon.

"You've been corralled by Heartless this entire time," Yazoo asked, eyeing Leon with a flicker of mirth.

"You try fighting in the dark against someone who doesn't want to fight," he returned.

Yazoo shrugged, "child's play."

Sora and Kairi exchanged smiles before looking at the excitedly chattering Heartless around them. The horde filled the darkness around them, ebbing and flowing like water almost as the Heartless moved amongst each other and watched the foursome almost expectantly.

"So, the Heartless are harmless…what now?"

Sora looked up at his brother, "well they led us here and helped you. Maybe we can ask them to help us find the others and an exit?"

Leon blinked, "how do you intend to ask them anything? They don't exactly speak the same language if they speak a language at all."

Sora had to admit, he loved his brother. He didn't think Sora was insane for suggesting it; he just wanted to know how Sora was going to solve the obvious problem.

"Well…I guess I'll just try asking. They can sense the heart right? So they can probably figure it out."

His brother considered and nodded, looking over at Yazoo who looked like he'd sat on an anthill.

"Worth a try, Yazoo are you going to be okay?"

Yazoo shot him a look that said if he asked him to elaborate he might start hurting people. Sora hadn't realized how uncomfortable he'd gotten in such close proximity to the Heartless.

He turned to the nearest portion of the moving mass of teeth, claws, and eyes. They watched him intently; he felt suddenly that the dozens of faces were all focused on him as he knelt down reaching out a hand carefully. The Heartless shrank from him, chattering and clicking excitedly as if he were a light to their shadow. He supposed that made sense, he was a key bearer after all, banisher of shadows and whatever else that might entail. He stayed that way; hand outstretched for a few seconds, before the Heartless seemed to calm down and began coming towards him again. He heard Leon shifting uneasily behind him but was grateful when his brother chose to remain where he was.

"We lost three of our friends," he began the Heartless' antennae twitched as they grew silent; he wondered just how intelligent they actually were as he continued. "One of them is a key bearer like me. Do you think you could find them for us?"

The Heartless were silent and Sora frowned, wondering if they had in fact understood anything he'd said.

Kairi knelt next to him, her flame casting light over the myriad of dark faces as she looked at them earnestly, "please?"

Again they were greeted with silence broken by the swishing of bobbing antennae.

Behind them, Yazoo spoke up.

"I don't think the—"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the Heartless let loose in a deafening cacophony, surging forwards and forcing Sora and Kairi back towards Leon and Yazoo; the latter cried out and tried to draw his weapon but was forestalled by the former who set a firm hand on his wrist, preventing him from drawing. The group was pushed down a corridor as the chattering mass ran before and behind them, driving them deeper into the gloom filled maze.


	25. Chapter 22

"Roxas, are they still following us?"

Roxas glanced over his shoulder, the helmet lighting up the darkened cave behind them. The Heartless that had been shadowing their progress for an hour now were still behind them, and still staying just out of reach. They were chattering and hissing almost cheerily as they shadowed the trio, Rinoa still hadn't woken up and rested on Tifa's back; Roxas was still surprised to see how strong Tifa was, she wasn't even breathing hard.

"Yeah, they're still there."

Tifa nodded quietly, "how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, really."

That wasn't entirely true, when the Heartless had first appeared, Roxas had attempted to attack them, the armor had seized up and refused to move; tumbling him over as someone had bellowed commands into his head, deafening him. Tifa hadn't heard the voice, and it hadn't been until she'd helped him that he'd been able to stand again. He still wore the armor; too sore to even imagine walking on his own without its assistance. The Heartless hadn't come close after that, as if understanding that the travelers did not trust them and felt uneasy in their presence. In the hour of trudging through the cave system, they'd yet to see any sign of Sora, Kairi, Leon or Yazoo. Now of course they had other thigns to worry about, like the swarm of chattering Heartless following them around.

"There's another fork ahead," Tifa called out.

Roxas looked in front and saw the caverns breaking off in three directions, he moved ahead of Tifa, his armor giving him better vision even without the lamp she carried. He peered down the path ahead to find a pair of glowing gold eyes staring back at him, enforced by a wide maw of glistening teeth. Not that way then. He looked to the right, at first he didn't see anything, so he began to move before realizing that not seeing anything was very wrong. He should be able to see the walls at the very least that meant, yes, there they were. Four massive yellow eyes appeared and stared back at him, accompanied by a rattling hiss from the Heartless. He glanced over his shoulder at the leftmost path, it was clear, he rejoined Tifa as she reached the junction.

"Left is the only clear way."

Tifa looked down the other two branches and sighed, "I hate this we're being herded."

Roxas nodded silent agreement as they made their way down the new path. She'd find no argument with him, he didn't like being herded by the Heartless anymore than she did, but he wasn't allowed to fight them for some reason; and she didn't want to leave Rinoa alone to fight them herself. The only option left then was to simply allow the horde of shadows to move them around through the caverns. Roxas looked over his shoulder, watching as the Heartless poured into the cavern, blocking off the way they'd come. They scrambled over each other, chattering excitedly as they did so. To see them all scrambling around as they were twisted his gut but he'd already tried chasing them off, they merely melted away into the darkness. As soon as his attention turned elsewhere they would reappear and begin following the trio again. After repeating this several times he'd finally given up on the futile attempts.

"Hey Tifa, do you think we'll ever go home?"

She looked down at him curiously, "where'd that come from?"

He shrugged, not she could really tell in the armor, but it was there anyways.

"It's just that we seem to get dragged into these things, I'd like to just go back home and be normal again."

She chuckled, "funny, that's the last thing I wanted. I couldn't wait to get out and now that I am I don't want to go back to being normal."

"You're talking about joining the Elites?"

She nodded, joining up was the best thing that ever happened to me. I met your brothers, well Cloud; I guess Leon isn't actually your brother."

Roxas smiled a little, "don't you ever wish things would just stay normal though? No Heartless, no grand quest?"

Tifa looked at Rinoa whose head was resting on her shoulder with a faint smile, "I joined the Elites to protect my family too you know. I thought that if I could meet whatever came towards them first then they'd be safe. I should have realized that with my parents as role models we'd all get into trouble sooner or later."

She said this with a warm smile, Roxas didn't say anything more. He'd never aspired to be a hero or anything really. He hadn't even given any thought to what he wanted to do once he was finished with grade school. He knew he didn't want to go into the military like Cloud and Leon; they'd both been lucky in their mutual interest in the Elites academy and the subsequent service. He didn't have any real driving force; Sora of course was on a constant sugar high half the time and could be kept interested in almost anything. Though his real dedication seemed to be centered on animals and the understanding of why, when, where, and how they lived. He felt a sad smile tug across his mouth as he thought of Big Red, the chocobo they'd befriended last year. Roxas had hated him at first, and had been terrified when he'd realized that chocobos were carnivorous. Sora though had fallen in love with the bird as if he were a big dog or cat. The chocobo had followed the pair around resolutely until Sephiroth had killed it while he was under the sway of Xehanort. Roxas had been convinced at the time that Sora would fall over into some pall of depression but his father, and Roxas' uncle, Auron had been there to stabilize him and keep him focused on what they had to do.

Roxas shoot his head suddenly, realizing that his mind had wandered off entirely into some strange rambling line of thought. He tried to find where the thought process had started and found that he couldn't find it. Moving on, he looked around them and realized that at some point the tunnel they were in had started to go upwards. At least he thought it was going upwards. He wasn't entirely sure; it had become hard to tell which direction was which up in the ever twisting passageway. He glanced behind them, and sure enough, the Heartless were still there, rolling and pressing forwards in the same chattering mass they'd been in when he'd last looked. The situation seemed insane; if only Sora hadn't volunteered to go on this quest then none of this would have happened.

Something occurred to him then, and he looked up once more at Tifa.

"Hey Tifa," she looked down at him. "Do you love Cloud?"

She blinked in surprise, her expression turning into a scowl as she responded irately.

"Idiot, what kind of question is that? Of course I love him."

Her tone made him wince, not that she could tell beneath the armor, yes, he should have phrased that differently.

"I mean," he paused her, both because of her worsening expression, and because he wanted to ask the right question. "Is all this worth it?"

Her face softened somewhat, melting from anger to confusion and finally settling on an impish smile.

"You mean all this running off to strange places and nearly getting ourselves killed?"

He couldn't help himself; her smile apparently held the same contagion that made Sora's smiles so infectious and he found himself grinning with her behind his helmet.

"Yeah, I mean wouldn't you rather have just stayed back in the kingdom with your family and friends?"

She chuckled, "aside from the obvious fact that I'm military and this is what I'm supposed to do, no, not really."

She stopped then, turning around to him gripping Rinoa's rear firmly with one hand as she grabbed him and pulled him into a warm embrace.

"Roxas, you and Cloud, Leon, Sora; you're all my family as much as my parents and sisters. You're just as important to me. I'd never let any of you do something like this on your own, and there is nowhere else I would want to be. I belong besides your brothers and you, we're all a family and that means we all stand together. Even if Cloud's terrible at admitting just how much he cares about everyone, he feels the same way. Why do you think he worries so much every time you or Sora comes up with some new plan to put yourselves in harms way? Aren't we all worth that much to you? Isn't Namine?"

Roxas leaned against her, even though the armor couldn't have been comfortable against her abdomen. He listened to her heartbeat, his breathing slowed gradually as he heard the resounding pulse of each beat. The power in her heart was evident just in the power of each pump of blood it was giving. Something in that pulse was soothing, easing his mind from its tense and heightened state and allowing him to relax despite the fact that relaxing was the last thing he wanted to do.

_Rest bearer, you are wearing yourself thin. Let those who hold your heart catch you, they will not let you fall._

Roxas heard the voice, and felt his own confusion at the words. What was it talking about? He couldn't think at all, and then he realized that his armor was melting away and vanishing in the blue glow of the crystal lamp; letting his body's full worn state fall upon him. He heard the chattering of the Heartless with his own ears then, and realized that they didn't sound menacing, they sounded encouraging, supporting, as if a crowd of struggle fans were cheering him on in the background. He felt his body slump, and felt Tifa's arm catch him as his feet left the ground. The last sensation he was aware of was being lifted up and carried like a child, and hearing Tifa's quiet, reassuring voice whispering to him.

"I've got you, don't worry. I promised Cloud I'd take care of you, I'll get us out of this, just rest."

And then his mind went blank as he fell into a dreamless exhaustion and finally sleep.

"So explain to me why we're waiting here instead of leaving?"

Sora shared a dirty look with his brother as they both glared at Yazoo.

"We're not leaving without the others," Leon said quietly, "and besides that Heartless isn't letting us out of the caves anyways."

Yazoo fell silent and scowled at the massive bulk of the singular Heartless that rested in the mouth of the exit to the cave system. It looked like someone had taken a cat, super sized it and given it three pairs of eyes and spines on its back. The strangest part about the creature was that it was remaining completely silent, only shifting when they tried to approach it and leave the cavern. The horde of Heartless that had pushed them here was now gone, and only this one was left. Yazoo had regained his composure after the others had melted away, now with just the one he was more inclined to try attacking it. Sora, Kairi, and Leon though had kept him from harming it much to his further annoyance.

Kairi looked back into the caves worriedly, "you think the others are alright?"

"All we can do is wait," Leon replied though he didn't sound like he liked it anymore than she did. "We'd just get lost if we tried to find them in that maze."

He glanced at Yazoo, "unless that map is any help?"

"Map," Yazoo spat, "I'm not going to wander around in that cave system with this thing we had enough trouble getting out of it already. I am not going back in."

Sora wondered if it was the map that made Yazoo refuse to reenter the caves, or if the idea of the Heartless herding them around all over again was what sparked it. He wished that Yazoo and Leon shared the feeling of calm that the Heartless were exuding, but so far it seemed only the bearers could sense that they weren't malicious. Leon at least trusted him to the point where he'd take Sora and Kairi's word that the Heartless weren't going to hurt them. Glancing at the large cat-like shadow blocking their exit he wondered if that one was anything near as friendly as the ones in the cave had been. He doubted it, considering that it was blocking their exit so resolutely. He sighed and sat down against the rough wall of the cave, leaning his head back against the cool stone. Kairi sat down besides him, leaning on his shoulder and closing her eyes as she wound her fingers around his.

Leon knelt in front of them with a knowing smile but he didn't say anything much to Sora's relief. He looked at his brother and saw the worry hidden in his eyes; he reached out his other hand and put it on Leon's knee.

"She's fine, I'm sure of it. She's with Tifa, you know how protective she is."

Leon smiled and snorted, shaking his head as he placed a hand on top of Sora's his tone was amused but the worry in his eyes didn't fade.

"Oh I know exactly what Tifa is capable of, she's stronger than you might think."

His brother's gaze fell on Kairi, "you be gentle with him, he's not all grown up yet."

Kairi smiled, blushing slightly as she spoke, "I don't think you have to worry about that. He seems pretty grown up to me."

Leon blinked innocently, his tone was anything but.

"Really now, well Sora you've just been paid a very fine compliment. I wouldn't have thought you'd have matured quite that fully."

Sora kicked his brother, his face crimson as Kairi giggled; Leon fell back with a laugh.

"I surrender!"

Sora scowled, his face still bright red, but at least Leon's eyes weren't sad anymore, even if it was at his expense.

The large feline Heartless opened its eyes suddenly, standing and turning its head to look out at the jungle beyond the cave mouth. Sora noticed for the first time that it had twin whip-like tails that lashed the air viciously as it began to snarl, shrinking down as it bared its huge teeth.

Leon was on his feet, Yazoo joined him.

"What now," grumbled the latter, the former shrugged.

"Company I guess and our guardian doesn't like them much it seems."

The Heartless drew in a deep, rattling breath and let it out with a deafening roar that shook the foliage beyond the cave; Sora clapped his hands over his ears and didn't feel quite so bad about it as he saw Leon and Yazoo stagger under the thundering cry.

He looked back at jungle as the roar subsided and felt his heart fall.

"Oh no," Kairi murmured.

Outside the cave, Chimera were coming out of the brush and forming a cordon around the opening. The Heartless bristled, the three rows of spins on its back rising and falling as if in warning to the interlopers.

Leon drew his caster and stood besides the forelimb of the Heartless, aiming it at the Chimera.

"Well I never expected this, want to dance big guy?"

The Heartless snarled, Sora swore that it was smiling. Then the Chimera charged, Leon fired, Yazoo leapt over him and fired another volley, then the Heartless leapt at the Chimera, its massive frame toppling another cat-like construct in the process.

He called his keyblade and rushed to join the fray, Kairi at his side as they waded into the developing melee. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Roxas, Tifa, and Rinoa were also under attack and wondered if they should have gone looking for them after all; but for the moment he had to focus on his own problem.

Author's Note: For those that are wondering and haven't noticed this before, I like Tifa. Despite the fact that I do tend to beat her up quite a bit (remember no character in any of my stories is safe from my sadistic wrath) I've always thought of her as a very kind, caring, strong, and powerful person. So in a rare case of sympathy I thought I could give her a chance to show those qualities here that I've always ascribed to her. I hope they don't insult anyone too greatly, but if they do you can bite me…just don't blame me for the scars you'll have when I bite you back.


	26. Chapter 23

Sora ducked under the claw of the attacking Chimera, its pincers closing mere centimeters above his head. He rolled out from under his attacker and drove his keyblade down into its stony back. It let out a screech and died with a shudder. He turned to his next opponent, his eyes widening in surprise as a glowing stone cat leapt towards him. The Heartless slammed into it like a battering ram, shattering the stone monster with a splitting cry. Turning, the six golden yellow eyes locked with Sora for a moment and a flash of acknowledgment passed between the pair before it turned on its next opponent. Sora took its example and rushed to help Yazoo who was still fighting without the use of his broken arm, though the sling had long been discarded in the fighting.

"I don't need your help," snarled Yazoo as Sora attacked his opponent from the flank, giving Yazoo an opening to drive his bladed caster into the Chimera's eye.

"You're welcome," Sora called as he threw a fireball at another oncoming enemy.

They'd been pushed back from the cave mouth into the start of the maze of caverns, the light from the outside growing dimmer the further they were pushed. Soon they'd be relying wholly on the light from the crystal lamp, which wasn't exactly the most comforting idea in the world. The single Heartless had remained with them, and surprisingly was not getting in the way in the tightening quarters. It seemed to be changing its form to suit the confines, growing smaller and swifter though it still remained massive whenever it was before Sora. He'd lost track of Leon and Kairi in the melee but he could still hear them shouting. Kairi's voice bore the echoing of her armor. Sora had yet to use his, he didn't want to deal with the resulting hang over-like aches and pain when they still had a ways to go to their ultimate destination.

"We're getting pushed back," shouted Yazoo.

Sora noted not for the first time that the Elite's voice never wavered even when it was quite obvious that they were indeed being pushed back into the caves despite their efforts. He supposed that if he was going to use the armor, journey or no journey, now was the time to do it. He clapped his hand to his chest, and his armor flowed over his body; in that moment his surroundings cleared and he could see every detail of the cave, or so it felt. He was suddenly aware of something else too; or rather someone else; at first he assumed it was Kairi, that their shared bond, both emotional and as Keybearers was what he was feeling. Then he realized that it didn't feel like Kairi, it felt like another entirely, his heart soared as he recognized the sensation.

"They're here!"

"Who's here," Yazoo shouted back at him.

As if in answer to the question, Tifa placed a hand on Sora's shoulder using him as a kick off as she flew towards the Chimera in front of him with a shout as her fist charged and shattered its back.

"Where's Roxas?"

She stood up, lashing out with her leg, sending another Chimera reeling and letting Yazoo finish it off.

"He and Rinoa are back in the caves with the Heartless."

Yazoo hacked off the head of a serpent Chimera, is face flashing angrily.

"Am I the only one who doesn't like the idea of working with Heartless?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Tifa responded tersely as her heel connected with a pincer, getting caught in the grip of the scorpion's claws. The grip was short lived though as she brought her fist down and snapped the limb off at the joint.

"If they're going to help us, then I'm not going to ask them why."

"And," Yazoo paused, slashing at an attacker and firing into its face. "If they betray us?"

"Then we kill them too," she said with a grunt, wrestling the cat in front of her to the ground and beating its stone skull into a shattered mass against the floor of the cave.

Sora listened to the pair only partially as he fought, he didn't think that the Heartless would attack them. It sounded insane even when he thought it he had to admit, but they didn't feel the same as they had in the past. They felt like the wanted to help, as if they had the same goal in mind. It was strange he knew, and he could never explain the feeling to someone who wasn't a bearer. He could hardly articulate It in words after all, he was certain though that Kairi and Roxas would feel the same sensation from the Heartless.

"Hey Sora are you going to chase them the whole way into the jungle?"

He blinked and looked around him; he was standing just outside the mouth of the cave and the Chimera that remained were scattering into the dense foliage beyond, vanishing into the jungle. He turned to look back at the others, Yazoo was sitting down against the cavern wall, glowering at the cat-like Heartless which had resumed its prior size and was keeping a pair of eyes trained on him.

"Do you need something," he growled up at it.

Leon came up besides it and patted its front shoulder, "hey big guy. Thanks for the help."

Another eye rotated to focus on Leon and the Heartless gave a strange rumbling growl. The bulk of its attention though was focused on Kairi and Sora, both of whom dissolved their armor and stood together in mutual support as the throbbing aches set in.

"I hate wearing these things," Kairi murmured wincing from the pain.

"Yeah, me too," muttered Sora, his ears ringing.

Tifa tapped Leon on the shoulder, "Roxas and Rinoa are back in the caves. Both are out cold."

"Is Rinoa alright," he asked his expression growing fretful.

Tifa nodded, "she hit her head. Roxas and I stabilized her. He's fine too in case you were wondering."

She added this last bit with a smile as Leon's expression became appropriately abashed.

Punching his shoulder lightly she added, "don't worry; I won't tell."

Any levity that might have been about to set in was cut short by a scream that echoed out from the caves.

Tifa sighed and smiled as Leon bolted back into the cave and the sound of Rinoa's voice, "well at least she's awake."

Roxas shifted uncomfortably in his sleep, it was the first conscious thought he'd had since his collapse. The realization that he hadn't been even remotely aware of himself or his surroundings drove him to further consciousness. His mind came to slowly and his body still would not cooperate with him, but gradually things became clearer. The first thing he became aware of was the ache in his back; then he realized that his front was warm and his back cold. He attempted to adjust this groggily, but no matter which way he squirmed half of him remained warm and the other cold.

"Jeez, you'd think he'd wake up already," his mind tried to match the voice; Yazoo's he thought.

"Let it alone Yazoo," so it was Yazoo, "he collapsed on me back in the caves. He's exhausted."

That last was Tifa, of that he was sure. If he couldn't recognize her voice then he'd really be in trouble. He shivered again and wished he could get warm but whatever was warming him only worked on one side. It was driving him mad, the fact that he couldn't seem to wake up fully also presented its own problem.

Someone pressed a hand to his forehead, "he's got a fever. Rinoa are you sure he'll be alright?"

Rinoa's voice answered Tifa's, she sounded shaky. Roxas recalled that she'd been injured before and wondered if she was alright.

"It's the armor I think. If what Sora and Kairi have told me is accurate then wearing it for too long wears the body down. It isn't a cure all; it's just a pain killer."

"From what they've said," Yazoo grumbled, "it sounds more like a drug addiction."

"Yeah but we're not addicted to it," Kairi sounded haughty.

"Welcome back," Rinoa's voice again, she was relieved.

"We didn't see any Chimera," Leon paused before continuing. "Or Heartless, both seem to have completely vanished for the time being."

Someone knelt besides him, Roxas shifted uneasily as he again tried to wake himself.

"Has he woken up at all?"

Roxas envisaged Tifa shaking her head at Sora's question.

"No, but he's just started moving so at least we know he's still in there."

Sora draped something heavy and warm around Roxas, wrapping it tightly about him.

"You know I keep forgetting you have that," Leon said.

"It's important," Sora responded.

"Yes, I'm sure an oversized coat is immensely important when one is trudging through a jungle filled with killer statues and shadows."

"Yazoo, did you check the map," Leon asked, Roxas could just envisage the smile his cousin would be wearing.

"Yes, we go that way."

"That way," echoed Tifa curiously.

"Yes, that way," he snapped back at her. "You try reading this finger painting."

"Let me see," Leon asked with a chuckle, there was a pause before he spoke again. "Yes, we do in fact go that way."

"How reassuring," Tifa murmured though from her tone Roxas could guess that she was smiling.

"So Sora, Kairi, what can you tell us about the Heartless?"

At Leon's question, there was a silence; Roxas, now warmed by what he assumed was Auron's jacket, tried to listen as intently as he was able give his condition.

"It's hard to explain," Kairi began uncertainly; "it's almost as if they hate the Chimera."

"Hate them enough to help us," Yazoo asked disbelievingly. "They are killing machines you know."

Sora piped up then, "think of it like two rival predators. It's like the chocobos and the big cats. The chocobos couldn't compete with the cats so here and on the Southern Continent there aren't any chocobos, but on the Northern Continent where the cats have never been able to get to the chocobos still thrive. When you put two predators in the same place, they'll compete."

"Thank you for the biology lesson," Yazoo muttered in annoyance. "So you're saying that the Heartless see the Chimera as a threat to their territory, then why is it only now that they're fighting them?"

"How do we know it's only now," Rinoa asked. "After all this is the first time in hundreds of years that anyone has been to the Lost Continent. For all we know, the Heartless and the Chimera have been fighting that entire time."

"Then why did they just vanish after we left the caves," Tifa asked. "Since they apparently see us as the good guys you'd think they'd have stayed closer to us."

"Maybe they're only able to fight the Chimera on equal footing in the shadows; after all they are shadow creatures."

The conversation dragged on, and as it did Roxas found himself less and less able to follow along as his body's weariness reasserted itself over his mind and drove him back into slumber. The next time he was conscious, he was far more aware of his surroundings. For on thing he could tell that it was daytime, his eyes opened blearily and he looked around him laboriously. Everything was still stinging and the light hurt his eyes, and he felt like someone had been using a sledgehammer on his head. On the plus side, something smelled good.

"Oh, you're awake."

He flinched against the sound, and was rewarded with a chuckle as Tifa plopped down in front of him.

"You look like Leon, Cloud, and I after we passed training."

"What happened?"

She shrugged, "we got fall over drunk and woke up naked in a room at some bar in Hollow Bastion."

Roxas mind defogged enough to process what Tifa had just told him and to register that he in fact was not naked in a room over a bar.

"Leon and Cloud were naked?"

She grinned, "yep. Who'd have thought they were such lightweights…I also realized how unhealthy it is for four boys to be raised together." She paused and her grin broadened, "though it's great eye candy in the morning."

"Hey I head that," Leon called from across their small camp. "I can't believe you told him that."

She smirked at him, "oh come on, you didn't expect me to keep that secret forever."

Leon shook his head with a scowl that was a vain attempt to hide his smile.

"Well why don't you wake up Sora and Kairi while you're over there?"

Roxas looked down besides him, still wincing from his aches and the light. Sora and Kairi were sprawled besides him in the grass in each other's arms, their heads leaning together. He suddenly felt a surge of annoyance, why'd they look so peaceful while his head was ringing like a clock tower? He jabbed Sora in the ribs, soliciting a started squawk from his cousin who looked up at him in bewilderment.

"What was that for?"

"You looked too peaceful," Roxas said with an ill tempered snap. "Besides it's time to wake up."

Sora smiled lazily as he sat up and stretched, "you're on to talk. You've been out since yesterday."

His cousin looked at him for a moment, "you're welcome."

Roxas glared, his physical ailments adding to his annoyance.

"For what?"

Sora nodded, "you looked cold, so I let put the jacket on you."

Roxas recalled the feeling of warmth, and put a hand on his shoulder; sure enough, Auron's jacket was hanging on him.

"Thanks," he muttered sullenly.

Sora stood and gave him a careful hug, "come on. I bet you won't be too grouchy once we feed you."


	27. Chapter 24

Sora looked behind him at Roxas who had stopped again, standing shakily on his legs as he bent over and panted.

"Do you need to rest?"

Roxas shook his head, "I'll be alright."

Tifa put a hand on Roxas' shoulder, "that's what you said in the caves, and you collapsed shortly after that."

"The armo—" Roxas began.

"You are not using the armor again," snapped Tifa and Sora both, the pair looked at each other briefly before returning their attention to Roxas.

"Seriously Roxas," Tifa said worriedly, "the armor is what did this to you in the first place. You can't rely on it again, not until you've recovered."

Roxas sighed, "what am I supposed to do? I'm holding everyone up; at this rate it will take three weeks not three days."

Sora grinned, "I don't think you're moving that slowly."

"No, he's moving slower."

Tifa looked up at Yazoo standing above them on the path ahead, "have a heart; you're supposed to be afraid of Heartless, not be one of them."

Yazoo bristled but didn't take the bait, "whatever. He's your problem."

"You're right," Tifa said guardedly, "he is and you'd better remember that."

Sora looked at Yazoo's retreating back and then at Tifa worriedly.

"You guys aren't going to fight are you?"

"I doubt it," she said tersely, shifting her pack and kneeling. "He's just harder to deal with than his brothers. Get on."

Roxas shook his head, "I am not getting on your back."

She smiled at him sweetly, "yes you are. That or I'll explain to Cloud that you twisted both legs during a wrestling accident."

Sora snorted looking at Tifa disbelievingly, she was still smiling pleasantly at Roxas who seemed unsure if she was serious or not.

"Better do what she says," he said with a grin. "I don't think we want to find out if she's serious."

Sora watched Roxas as his expression turned to annoyed despair and he climbed up on Tifa's back, draping his arms over her shoulders as she stood and adjusted the weight before proceeding. Sora followed after the pair, smiling to himself when he noted that Tifa's pace had not slackened in the least even with Roxas on her back.

"She's at it again," Sora turned to see Rinoa climbing up the path. "She likes showing off."

"I think she's just worried about Roxas," Sora said.

"Well she did promise Cloud, so that makes it even more important."

Sora reached past Rinoa as she climbed upwards and took Kairi's hand, helping her up the rocks with a grin.

"So have you heard from Namine?"

She scowled at him, but there was a smile on her face despite the glare.

"Sora, we're twins, not psychics."

"There's a difference?"

She rolled her eyes and pushed him upwards, "you bum."

Leon brought up the rear of the group; he looked at Sora with a smirk, "tired?"

Sora shook his head, "not yet."

"Well we've still got two days of this; don't expend all your energy at once."

"Jeez Leon, I know how to go on a hike."

"With killer statues running around in the jungle," Leon asked with a chuckle as they climbed together.

"No, but I've jumped out of a flying ship with a backpack packed with a big sheet to break the fall."

Leon snorted, "I'm sure Merlin would enjoy hearing it explained like that."

"He'd probably laugh," Rinoa called over her shoulder. "It's Archie who'd be indignant."

Sora frowned, "you know I've never understood that. How does an owl talk?"

"Ask Merlin," Rinoa said simply.

"I did, all he said was: "he's a highly educated owl.""

Rinoa giggled, "yeah that's all he'll say about it to anyone."

Leon shrugged, "a wizard did it. Do you need any other excuse?"

Sora considered some of the things he'd seen wizards and the like do, including turning into dragons, appearing and disappearing at will, and changing their age at will. Yes, he supposed that 'a wizard did it' would have to suffice as an explanation.

Roxas spent the rest of the day riding on Tifa who seemed to have little or not care for the fact that he was hanging off her back. She even managed to jump from rock to rock across a river they'd been forced to cross. Roxas had been convinced she would fall in, but she'd declined letting him down and simply leapt across as if she were skipping down a paved road. The teasing from Sora and Leon had abated after the first hour or so of his ride at least. Much as he hated to admit it, without Tifa he'd have been forced to use the armor again and the thought of that was frightening at best considering what it had done to him the last time he'd used it too extensively. With nothing better to do he spent time imitating Sora's fascination with nature.

The jungle was just as dense as it had been before, though in this case there was a semi-path along the route that their laughable map outlined. There were dozens of both usual and unusual birds, among other multitudes of animals. Roxas was struck very much by how different it was here than at home. There the trees grew to massive heights with large spaces beneath them. Here everything was packed so densely together it was impossible to see beyond the veil of greenery. Beyond that veil he heard the calls of various creatures that he could not name and wondered if Sora could; however his cousin offered no explanation for the calls though Sora certainly seemed just as fascinated with the jungle as Roxas was bored with it.

The thoughts that kept plaguing Roxas were quite simple, why had the Heartless helped them where were the Chimera and why, if the armor was meant to help them, did it hurt so much to use it? No answers stood up to provide an obvious solution to any of his problems. Neither the Chimera nor the Heartless had made an appearance since they'd left the caves which begged the question of where they'd gone and if the Heartless were playing guard for their party beyond their field of view. Despite the fact that the Heartless were evidently helping them, the thought that they might owe their safety to them was more disconcerting than reassuring if Roxas was going to be completely honest with himself.

The issue with the armor was…complicated, and he wished he had Namine here to ask since she seemed to be the one most likely to know anything about this situation. She'd known about the armor before the rest of them had, and she usually seemed to be a step or two ahead of the rest of them when it came to all of this. He wondered if that was fair to say though, especially given Riku's distrust of her. He didn't want to start sounding like he was taking his side against Namine, far from it; he knew perhaps more than most just what she was forced to deal with. He didn't want to lose her trust after coming this far with her.

His mind continued in these veins for the remainder of the trip, and he became so engrossed in them that he did not realize that the sun had fallen from the sky until Tifa's steady rhythm was broken and she knelt to let him off.

"We're stopping?"

Tifa jumped, looking over her shoulder with a smile.

"Hey, I thought you were asleep. You've been so quiet."

Roxas shook his head as he stood up and began examining their surroundings.

"How far have we come?"

"Well if this stinking drawing is accurate at all, we're probably another two and a half days from the area where we're supposed to look."

Roxas looked at Yazoo with a frown. "What do you mean the 'area?'"

"I swear we've had this discussion already," Yazoo grumbled as he settled in, taking his pack off and checking his caster. "The map sucks. End of story, I'll be up top."

Without another word he leapt up the nearest tree and began jumping from branch before vanishing in the foliage.

"Show off," Leon said with a snort. "I guess he has first watch."

"I'll take second," Tifa offered, immediately rolling over and closing her eyes.

Rinoa smiled at her sister, putting a hand on Roxas' shoulder as he moved towards Tifa, "Let her sleep. She'll eat when she wakes up."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I guess that's my fault."

Rinoa smiled, settling down and spreading her palm, flames leapt from her hand and formed a neat column of fire a foot high in the center of the little ring their group formed. She reached into her pack and offered Roxas some of the dried fruit that passed for their meal. He took the offered food and sat down besides her, looking across the fire at Sora and Kairi who were snuggled together beneath Auron's jacket. He felt a pang of loneliness as his thoughts strayed tenderly to Namine.

Rinoa put her arm around him, "She's thinking of you too."

He looked up at her, "I hope so."

"Oh I know so, remember I have to worry about Leon every time he gets sent off to do something silly."

"I'll have you know that everything I do is for the good of the Kingdom," Leon responded around his food.

"Does that include sneaking into my house and violating your curfew to spend the night with me?"

Leon smiled smugly, "You gave me a key."

Rinoa returned his smile, "I was bribed."

As the pair continued to flirt, Roxas looked over at Sora and Kairi, they were kissing each other gently and again the pang of loneliness hit him. Rinoa gave him a squeeze.

"Hey, stop that. You'll see her again soon, so no more long faces. Get some rest alright?"

Roxas snorted, "I just hope I can walk tomorrow."

She nodded understanding and placed a hand against his neck, a blue green glow emanated from her palm and Roxas felt like someone had run cool water over and through his body. He let out a relieved breath as the coolness spread through him and soothed his sore muscles. On a side note, his breath came out fogged, bringing a needed smile to his face.

"Thanks Rinoa."

She nodded, "I thought that might help. The foggy breath is a nice touch too don't you think?"

He couldn't help it; he laughed the feeling of being alone fleeing from his mind as he remembered what Tifa had said before in the caves. This was his family, his friends, even if he was away from Namine, he still had them until he could see her again. As the relaxing cool continued to spread through his body and ease his sore muscles, he let himself fall asleep, drifting off against Rinoa as they sat by the fire.

"Roxas?"

Roxas sat bolt upright as Namine's voice reached his ears, aside from his excitement at hearing her voice the first thing he truly noticed was that the camp and the others were all gone. In their place was a massive stone chamber, pulsating with the same myriad of colors that the Chimera possessed. Almost instinctively he called his keyblades, only nothing happened; his heartbeat quickened as he tried three more times before finally giving up.

"It's alright Roxas, this isn't real."

He turned to find Namine standing behind him, blinking in surprise as he realized that she wasn't wearing her armor, but rather a plain white dress, the sort he'd seen her wear dozens of times before.

"Where are we?"

She looked uncertain as she knelt down and touched his face tenderly, her expression was strange as if she were not sure that he was actually there or not.

"A dream, I've never tried this before, but I had to talk to you."

"What's the matter," he asked ignoring the strange circumstance they found themselves in. Namine looked frightened, his own uncertainty melted in the face of her need.

She shook her head, "Roxas, hurry back. There's something here, in the city. I can feel it tugging at me; I'm sure Riku can too but he won't say anything about it."

"The Chimera?"

Again she shook her head, "Roxas if I knew what it was, don't you think I'd do something about it? I don't know, and it's frightening me."

Roxas stood up, standing next to her and looked across the stone chamber, his heart leapt into his throat as he saw what Namine kept looking at: a blue glowing crystal hung suspended above a massive pool of water, stone figures much like the Chimera floated around it. They formed a protective barrier around the crystal, circling it almost like sharks would a kill. The sight sent a chill down his spine. He reached down and gripped Namine's hand, so real despite his certainty that this was a dream.

"Can I stay here?"

Her hand tightened around his and she leaned against him, "Please."

He pulled her close, staring up at the crystal nervously as Namine's heart beat synchronized with his own. He could feel it too, whatever this was, it was hungry and it was calling to him as well.

Author's Note: Yes I made a D&D joke in a KH fic, if you spotted it you may shoot me now.


	28. Chapter 25

The next morning everyone listened as Roxas told the group of his dream as they ate; even Yazoo listened intently despite his initial comment of Roxas 'merely dreaming up his girl because he was lonely.' Sora felt growing unease as his cousin continued to elaborate on everything that Namine had told Roxas in the night. That there was something on the continent was obvious enough, Namine seemed to think it was in the city and that it could feel the keybearers and even reach out to them somehow. Why was anyone's guess; though from Roxas' description of the chamber he'd been in with Namine it certainly sounded like whatever it was had a connection with the Chimera and that it was aware that Roxas, Sora, Namine, Kairi, and Riku all had extraordinary powers that it could make use of.

When Roxas was finished, Tifa was the first to speak.

"We shouldn't have left them there."

"Not much we can do about that," Yazoo said quietly, looking honestly concerned for a change. "We need to find the heir before we can go back."

"Yes," Tifa responded with a snap, "I know that Yazoo but by then it will be another three or more days before we can get back to them. We'll have been gone for over half a week, leaving them to deal with whatever it is that's watching Namine and Riku. He's your cousin; doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Yazoo glared at her, "Don't try to play pity with me. It won't work; we all have our jobs to do. If they can't handle it then we shouldn't have agreed to the King's deal and looked for the survivors ourselves."

"Both of you," Leon broke in, "shut up before you actually cause trouble. We have to finish this."

"Bu—" Tifa began, but Rinoa put a hand on her sister's arm.

"I know you're worried about Cloud Tifa, but Yazoo is right. We all have our tasks, for now all we can do is trust that they'll be able to fend for themselves."

"What if they need our help," she responded. "What if they're hurt while we're stuck here?"

"And what if we don't find the King's heir," Yazoo asked in response. "My brothers are there too you know, but if we don't find this heir our entire kingdom will probably be dragged into a war it can't win. For all we know that might already be the case, the sooner we do our job, the sooner we can help the others and the kingdom."

Leon nodded quiet agreement, "It's my family at stake too Tifa. It's the same for all of us; we've all got people in that city we care about. The best way to end this and keep them safe is to find the heir and get back to them as quickly as we can."

Tifa looked at Rinoa, who nodded determinedly; she sighed and returned her sister's nod with resignation.

"Alright, then we'd better get moving."

After that they resumed their trek through the heavy foliage. They remained quiet throughout most of the journey with only a smattering of conversation breaking the uneasy silence. The tension in the group was almost palpable and Roxas almost regretted telling them about his shared dream with Namine. It was almost a relief when they finally laid down that evening. He'd hoped that he could speak with Namine again but she did not appear in his dreams. Instead the gold glowing eyes of hundreds of Heartless peered at him from the shadows of his own dreams. As he slept he was aware of their piercing gaze watching his every movement but whenever he turned to face them there was nothing but shadow lit with singular pillars of light that faded as soon as he stepped into them. He woke fitfully just before dawn to find Yazoo already awake, sitting halfway out on a low hanging limb watching the slowly brightening jungle.

"Dawn isn't here yet, you should sleep."

Roxas nodded. "I'm awake now though."

Yazoo snorted. "I suppose you are, anymore dreams?"

Roxas stood and moved beneath Yazoo's tree. "No, just nightmares I guess."

"You guess?"

"The Heartless."

Yazoo sucked in a breath. "I hate those things."

"I do too." Roxas agreed.

There was a long silence between them then before Roxas looked up at Yazoo. "Do you think we'll get there today?"

"Damned if we don't." Yazoo responded tersely. "It's the third day."

"If you two are done." Leon grumbled. "Some of us are still trying to sleep."

Yazoo glared at Leon for a moment before shrugging and looking back over the foliage. "There's a big cat out there."

Roxas followed Yazoo's line of sight. At first he didn't see anything, and then as if by magic his eyes settled on a piercing yellowed gaze with black pupils staring back at him. The feline regarded him coolly, as if wondering if he were worth the trouble. Roxas for his part didn't dare break the animal's gaze though he longed to look away from the eerie gaze. Finally the cat looked away, slinking back into the dense undergrowth and vanishing from view without a sound.

"Not so tough." Yazoo stated simply.

"How did you know it was there?" Roxas asked, still watching the spot where the cat had disappeared.

"He was looking at me funny." Yazoo responded.

Roxas looked up at him, wondering if that was supposed to be a joke or not.

When Sora woke he found Yazoo and Roxas speaking quietly away from everyone else. Rinoa and Tifa were packing their things as Leon made breakfast. He rolled over and shook Kairi who awoke blearily, smiling up at him as she gave him a soft kiss that lingered on his lips.

"I think we need to get going."

She nodded and stretched as he sat up and tried to work the crick out of his neck. Sleeping on the ground, even with a bag and Kairi, wasn't exactly comfortable. He stood and went over to Leon fishing out a piece of meat and some of the strange vegetables from the pan.

"You know I think I'm going to start liking this stuff." Leon remarked.

Sora smiled. "Yeah, I wonder if we could bring some back for the bakery?"

Leon snorted. "Spiced bread rolls or something? That would be fun, certainly put some funny expressions on peoples' faces."

Sora smiled as he imagined said faces, he made to make another joke but then noticed that Yazoo, Tifa, and Leon had all stopped and were looking around them cautiously. He too looked around at their surroundings; he didn't see anything but the hairs on his neck rose up beneath his armor. It felt like they were being watched. Yazoo drew his caster from its holster, a ray of sunlight shining off the long blade beneath the barrel. Leon followed suit drawing his own weapon as he look around.

"Alright we know you're there." Tifa called.

There was no answer from the foliage, of course who would have expected there to be? If it was the Chimera then they didn't speak to begin with. Sora flexed his fingers, summoning his keyblade to his grasp.

"Wait!" Someone out in the brush shouted suddenly.

Roxas and Kairi called their own blades forth as a stooped and graying man tottered out from the bushes on a gnarled staff which he leaned on heavily.

"You are the keybearers." He stated, ignoring Yazoo who was pointing the barrel of his caster against his temple.

"Yeah, that's us." Sora said uncertainly. What else was he supposed to say?

The old man frowned. "Aren't there supposed to be five of you?"

"There are." Kairi supplied.

"Hmm." The old man looked around at the group quizzically. "Well it certainly isn't any of you. You're all too old."

"Who's old?" Tifa growled, punching her fist into her palm.

The old man chuckled. "My dear girl trust me, you are far too old to be a bearer though by my standards you are infinitely young."

Sora wasn't sure if that was supposed to assuage Tifa's ego or inflame it. The comment certainly seemed to do both though. Rinoa put a calming hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"You may call me Dallben and I am a sorcerer of sorts. I believe I am the one who is in need of an explanation however. You are obviously not from the Lost Continent. In fact I would say you are from my homeland to the north."

"Are you one of the Corsairs?" Kairi asked as her keyblade vanished.

"Well if you want to call us that then I suppose I am." Replied Dallben with a bemused smile as if the title was somehow funny. "I gather you are searching for us?"

"We're looking for the son of Morrigan." Yazoo stated bluntly.

Dallben turned to him, knocking his caster aside with a gentle tap of his staff. "Oh dear, you mean you aren't—oh my, this is…troubling."

"What is troubling?" Yazoo inquired his voice flecked with annoyance.

Dallben waved his hand. "Well no matter I'm sure it will all sort itself out in time. Come with me then. I will take you to the others, though I warn you now that they will not be happy to have outsiders."

Without further explanation he turned and strode off into the forest. The group exchanged glances before they followed, grabbing what gear had already been packed but abandoning most of their camp to follow him. Sora caught a glimpse of a large cat watching them from the shadows of the forest. Dallben gave a wave of his hand and the cat turned away, wandering back into the gloom. Sora felt his heart jump. Another wizard, just how many were there? He wondered what sort of dragon Dallben could turn into and if Merlin and the others knew that he was here. Dallben led them at a brisk pace that belied his reliance on his staff. Oddly with him leading the way the entire group seemed to be covering more ground. Everything seemed to fly past with unnerving speed. He was aware that the foliage was lessening and before long he realized that they were no longer treading on dirt but on stone. It was some kind of cobbled roadway that was slowly being consumed by the jungle though the plant life had yet to dominate the stubborn stonework. A stone wall rose up out of the thinning trees ahead of them. Sora stared at the etching across its surface, the depictions upon it showed people interacting with what appeared to be Chimera. It was much the same as the architecture they'd found at the city inside the mountain.

As Dalben led them through an archway at the wall's base Sora looked to Roxas; his cousin was examining the stone cutting as well. They exchanged looks. Just what was the connection between the people and the Chimera?

"It's the reason I thought you'd come actually." Dallben called from the head of the group. "But it seems I was mistaken. You will have to explain more to Lord Ector."

Sora's mind clicked. That name, he touched his father's jacket, slung over his shoulder. It was the only thing he'd taken from their abandoned camp. This was it, the person his father had spoken to him about. He was so absorbed in the sudden revelation that it took him a moment to realize that Dallben had answered his and Roxas' question without them asking it. How had he done that?

"Simple really, and don't worry I can only take your surface thoughts. I have no power to call forth your deeper thoughts nor do I desire to."

Everyone in the group stopped and looked at the old man as he continued to bustle down the archway's tunnel. He paused and turned to look at them with a frown.

"Well come on. We can't move very quickly if you all stand still."

Slowly they all resumed their procession. Sora noticed that everyone had their hands on their weapons now. The end of the archway was in sight now, and as they passed through it into the light they were greeted by a vast open courtyard with stone structures of the now familiar architecture. That wasn't what caught Sora's attention though. They were surrounded by a group of twenty or so, all of them dressed in full plated armor. They would have looked ridiculous in the heavy, colorful—for it seemed that every color imaginable was represented in their number—and outdated armor if it weren't for the fact that they all had drawn weapons. Dallben had led them straight into an armed camp.

"Oh crap." Muttered Yazoo, his hand frozen over his caster's holster.

"Yeah." Leon agreed with a nod as he surveyed the armored figures. "We're in trouble."

"Don't let them get to the kids." Tifa growled, raising her arms defensively.

Sora might have been offended at being referred to as a kid, but at the moment he was more concerned about the armored group surrounding them than what Tifa was calling him. He touched his father's coat for a moment before steeling himself.

"I'm the son of Auron; he served with Ector in the Order!"

The figures didn't move, Dallben who had come to a halt and turned to watch them now looked at Sora curiously. Tense moments passed as the armored figures continued to stare from behind their helms at the group.

Leon leaned close to Sora. "What was that about?"

"Dad said he know Ector."

His brother frowned. "Dad is dead Sora."

"I know," Sora said in response. "I'll explain later okay?"

"Alright," Leon replied skeptically. "I just hope you know what you're doing."

Conveniently as Leon finished speaking one of the armored individuals reached up and removed his helm to reveal a man in his middle years with graying and receding red hair and an angry red mustache.

He eyed Sora with piercing gray-green eyes. "You're Auron's brat?"

Sora nodded, pushing past Leon and Yazoo to face what he assumed was Ector. "Yes."

The man snorted, his mustache twitching furiously as his lips twisted in a frown. "How is he?"

"He died, last year."

The man's face softened slightly, growing less severe as he regarded Sora. "I'm sorry to hear that, your father and I were friends. I am Ector; you're intruding upon my home but seeing as you're Auron's son I suppose I can't simply kill you."

He gave a curt nod and the armored figures sheathed their weapons though none removed their helms or relaxed their guard beyond the act of sheathing.

Ector waved his hand. "Well then come. We can discuss what you're doing here over lunch since you've interrupted it."

Sora looked up at the sun, indeed it was noon. He looked at Dallben disbelievingly, it had been morning less than thirty minutes ago.

Author's Note: So I had this lying around unfinished and felt like finishing it. Hope you don't get too excited. Though I think I'll be able to pull another couple chapters off this week if I work at it. Also in Dallben's case, isn't Haste a wonderful thing?


	29. Chapter 26

Ector sat at the far end of a circular dais that was raised off the ground with a stone stump and served as a table for the group as they ate. The other armored figures in his company had removed their helms finally and Sora noticed that they almost all of an age with Ector. That was to say that they were in their middle years at least with a few exceptions who appeared to be closer to his brother's age but of these there were only three. He looked down at his meal which had been placed on the table well before he and the others had arrived. It was made up of meats and more of the strange spiced vegetables that he'd seen the lost continent's natives eating back in their city. He ate gingerly, having learned his lesson before on just how hot the food could be if not taken slowly…or perhaps quickly he supposed as a particularly virulent piece set his mouth afire.

"So tell me," Ector inquired guardedly. "What you're doing in my home so far away from your own. Has Ansem finally decided to finish us off after all these years?"

The party exchanged nervous glances but finally Leon spoke up. "No, Ansem the Wise," at the mentioning of this title for the dead king there was a good deal of derisive snorting around the stone table. "Died last year defending his people, there is no heir apparent for the throne and the kingdom is on the brink of a war with her neighbors if no heir is named."

This information brought on very solemn expressions on the faces of their hosts. Many exchanged glances and leaned over to whisper to their companions. One man, sitting besides Ector whispered something that brought on a dark expression from the latter. The former turned towards their group. He was perhaps the most opposite of Ector that Sora could imagine. Where Ector was a wall of a man with his great red moustache and hair, this man was a reed with scraggly black hair and a broom's mustache. The differences were made the more shocking by their proximity.

"You're here looking for an heir then?"

Leon nodded. "That's correct."

"You've come too late then." The man said firmly. "I'm afraid that the lady Morrigan died some time ago."

"We're not here for the traitor," Yazoo muttered in annoyance.

At those words, many hands dropped below the table and Sora imagined armored gauntlets gripping sheathed weapons. Tifa elbowed Yazoo in the ribs, eying him pointedly. He looked away and seemed content to stare off into space.

"Not here for the lady Morrigan," the man who'd been addressing them continued thoughtfully. "Then whom do you seek?"

"Her son," Leon stated simply. "We've come to place him upon the throne. All of you would be welcomed back to the kingdom as well." He added swiftly before the murmurings could grow louder than they already were at the statement.

Ector put down the goblet he'd been drinking from and leaned forwards. "What would you do with my son?"

Sora blinked in surprise. Ector's son? What was he talking about? Surely the heir wasn't his…Morrigan's consort had been killed after all.

"We intend to give him the crown." Leon said, his voice shifting guardedly. "We mean him no harm."

"No harm," Ector fumed quietly, his face growing red. "You'd only put a seventeen year old boy atop the throne of a kingdom on the brink of war."

"He'd have able advisors," Tifa interjected but was cut off by Ector.

"Able advisors," he spat. "The cronies of that murdering dog you called king!"

"Now Ector," began the stick of a man, but he too was cut off.

"No!" He roared furiously, slamming his hands on the table and standing. "I will not sit by and watch as they put one of my sons atop that cursed seat Pellanor! That thing killed Morrigan and it will just as surely kill Arthur!"

"Huh-hum," Dalben cleared his throat. "The boy is royalty and Ansem and Morrigan have no other living relative to take the throne. The kingdom's neighbors would leap at the chance to expand their borders. Arthur would be the only viable heir."

"I will not hear of it," Ector said, turning on Dalben now. "He is not going to sit upon that throne."

"Ector," spoke a man in black armor quietly. "It is not your place to decide the boy's fate. This decision, should it be genuine." this part he directed at Leon who nodded. "Effects all of us here, I say we hold a council." He raised his gauntleted hand quietly. "Those in favor of naming Arthur as our king and returning home?"

Sora looked around the table as the men and women around it raised their hands or kept them lowered. He counted a total of twenty eight people in all. Fourteen were for it. The thin man that Ector had addressed as Pellanor counted off the number quietly; he was among those in favor.

"It seems we've reached an impasse."

"Then it's settled," grumbled Ector. "He will not sit the throne."

"I say let the boy decide." the black armored man asserted.

"He's seventeen," Ector snarled.

"It is his fate to decide," Dablen asserted. "You may be his foster father but ultimately he must take his own path."

"I agree," Pellanor stated. "Let Arthur decide."

"Very well," Ector growled, slouching in his chair. "Where is he?"

"I believe," Dalben supplied, "that he is with Kay and Taran in the jungle."

"Of course," Ector said. "The one time we need him here and he's off daydreaming." His gaze turned to Sora. "You, boy, tell me about your father. I want to know what the miserable cur got himself up to while I was away."

Sora didn't like Ector's tone or way of referring to his father, but he obliged the man. Telling him of what memories he had of Auron from his childhood and of the last year's adventures fighting alongside him against the Heartless. When he finished of the last time he'd seen his father in the flesh—he omitted his father's other communications—he stopped and looked to Ector expectantly. Ector for his part was looking between Sora and Leon appraisingly.

"Well I'd say he's had a good brood to carry on his legacy. No doubt there." He stood up and waved them off. "You'll find quarters prepared. The boys will not be back until this evening. I will summon you once they have returned."

"Actually," Dalben supplied with a wane smile. "I can fetch them back much swifter than that."

Ector glared at the old man for a moment, but nodded sullenly. "Fine, you lot go wait for him to bring them back then." He turned and stalked away.

Sora had to wonder, as they were led away, just what experiences Ector's life had held to make him so surly and…well almost defeatist.

"Alright Sora," Leon said as they entered the barracks—there really wasn't another way to describe the stone blockhouse they found themselves in—that had been made available for them. "Spill it, what do you mean that dad told you about Ector?"

Sora sighed and explained at length about their father's visit to him. By the end of it Leon had a scowl on his face and was pacing the room like a caged animal.

"Can't he just stay dead?"

"Don't say that, I miss him." Sora responded.

Leon stopped, his foul countenance faltering as he looked at his little brother's expression.

"Yeah…yeah I know but…" he trailed off and shook his head. "Sorry."

Sora smiled at Leon uncertainly. "Did you and dad ever reconcile? I know you were always mad at him."

"Not really, no." Leon answered dismissively. "He wasn't around long enough for that and he was too busy keeping an eye on you." Here he looked at Sora with something that approached envy, an expression Sora had never seen directed towards him. He didn't like it. "He said that I'd done fine on my own, and he was more worried about you since you were still such a kid."

As he spoke, Leon sat down on the cot in the room, looking down at the floor. Hesitantly, Sora joined him, leaning against him and smiling up at him.

"You know he loves both of us right?"

Leon sighed heavily. "I suppose."

Sora glowered, punching Leon in the side. Through the armor it had little effect though the symbolism was still there.

"Don't say that, he and mom are both watching out for us."

"Yeah, I just—" he stopped and looked down at Sora. "Why are you the one getting all the messages?"

"I don't know…maybe because I'm a keybearer?"

Leon snorted. "No fair, that's cheating."

Sora shrugged helplessly. "I didn't want to be."

"Says the one that charges off at the first sign of trouble without so much as a backwards glance." Leon chided, ruffling Sora's hair. "You're just a magnet for trouble."

"No I'm not," Sora said defensively.

"Oh?" Leon inquired with a smile. "And who was it that volunteered to come out here without consulting anyone else on the matter?"

"I—well I—" Sora scowled. "That was different."

"Uh-huh." Leon said disbelievingly. "You're just full of surprises Sora, next time I expect some warning."

"Next time what?"

Leon gave him a considered look. "The next time you plan to volunteer yourself for a crazy mission or get a message from people who are supposed to be dead."

Sora's face flushed and he ducked his head, sitting quietly for a long moment. Not for too long though, Leon wrapped his arm around Sora's head and gripped him in a headlock despite his protests.

Roxas listened to Sora and Leon's rough housing, feeling infinitely lonely and distracted as he stared up at the ceiling. Even though it was early afternoon, he couldn't think of anything else to do other than lay about his little apartment. He couldn't stop thinking about the dream—or was it a vision?—with Namine and that strange floating light. He hated leaving her in the city alone. Well not alone, Cloud and the others were all there of course. This was Namine though, and she just didn't share with others the way she seemed to with him. She'd have no one to talk to. He looked around the room, it all seemed so sparse and militant to him though he had to admit that he was impressed by the fact that Ector and his people had managed to carve out such an effective complex from the ruins of whatever city or town this had once been. From the brief glimpse of their home, the Corsairs had carved out the ruins into a series of living quarters, storage rooms, and common areas all centered on the large raised dais they'd been sitting at earlier.

He supposed with twenty some years and nothing else to do with their time; they'd turned to turning their new home into as hospitable a place as was possible to do with an unforgiving wilderness on all sides. Though apparently that hadn't stopped them from growing comfortable enough to create their miniaturized city and prosper. He'd thought that perhaps the group they'd been dealing with was all there was but he'd noticed people glances out from what he assumed were houses and such as they'd made their way through the complex. There could be whole families in the area. It made sense when he thought about it. Ector wouldn't want to show them everything they'd built here. Even if he was being a good host, there was little doubt in Roxas' mind that the man did not trust them.

There was a knock on his door. "It's open." He called.

Tifa entered the room with Yazoo, Roxas blinked and looked at them as they sat down. Tifa on the same cot on he was sitting on while Yazoo leaned against the wall by the door.

"How are you?" Tifa asked with a smile as she leaned forwards on the bed.

Roxas looked at Yazoo by the door, and then at Tifa with a frown. "What's going on?"

Tifa looked at Yazoo with a nod, her smile still on her face. "He won't admit it, but he's worried about you." as she spoke, Yazoo snorted dismissively and looked at the far wall. "So am I, so here we are."

"I'm fine." Roxas said with a smile, feeling a warmth building in his chest. "I'm just worried about—" he paused, frowning as something pounded in his skull. "I just…I just…." he didn't finish what he was saying as he clutched his head with a groan.

"Roxas!" Tifa cried, putting her hands on his shoulders. She looked up at Yazoo. "Don't just stand there! Go get Rinoa!"

Yazoo nodded and was out the door without a word, Roxas was only vaguely aware of all of this as he bent over, clutching his skull desperately. His vision blurred and when he looked up he was in the crystal chamber from before. The crystal was different though, it glowed red and was…_looking _at him. He felt terror, but it wasn't his own terror. Strong hands gripped him from behind, he tried to struggle but the grip remained firm. What was happening? Then he heard a piercing scream that lanced through his head and dropped him to the floor.

"ROXAS!"

His eyes opened, Tifa was looking over him, her eyes ablaze with fear. Glancing around desperately he found Leon sitting on the other cot with Sora in his arms. Sora's eyes were locked with Roxas'. They'd both felt it.

"What is going on?" Rinoa asked as she joined them. Behind her, Yazoo was carrying Kairi in her arms.

"They just started dropping." Yazoo replied.

"Thank you I can see that." snapped Rinoa as she felt Sora's forehead, "he's burning up." She knelt besides Tifa and felt Roxas' forehead. "So is he, and it's the same with Kairi."

She made to stand but Roxas clutched her arm, looking at her with crazed eyes. "Namine, it's Namine."

Rinoa knelt back down, looking at him patiently though her brow was creased with worry. "What about Namine?"

"It has her, the crystal…it took her."

Sora nodded his head in mute agreement, as did Kairi, still in Yazoo's firm grasp.

Tifa looked at Leon accusingly. "I told you we should have gone back, what now Leon?"

Leon pried Sora from him and stood. He looked at all of them fretfully, his eyes lingered quite a while on Roxas and Sora both before he looked to Yazoo.

"Stay here and help Rinoa, Tifa come with me. We need to speak with Ector."

Author's Note: So for those keeping score, I just passed the ASVAB which means my studying schedule has freed up a bit for the time being hence the writing I've been able to do. I'm going to try and finish this story before I go anywhere away from a computer but we'll see how that goes. With any luck though it shouldn't be too hard. We're reaching the end, can you tell?


	30. Chapter 27

Roxas, Kairi, and Sora huddled close to each other. They took comfort in their mutual agony as their minds reeled. They couldn't truly tell what was going on, just that Riku and Namine were both involved as was the mysterious crystal. Rinoa and Yazoo tried to help, but there was little they could do beyond give them water. The pain would not subside to little more than a dull throbbing and Roxas could barely think through the fog that created. There was however, one thought that was completely overriding all else. He had to get to Namine. He had to save her. Nothing else could push past the pain he was feeling. However in his current state he could not fathom a means to save her nor even to get to her should he be able to push past the pain.

Leon and Tifa came in then, their faces guarded.

"We just spoke with Ector and Arthur both. He's willing to take the throne, and as we're to be his subjects he's offered to assist us however he and his father's people can."

Tifa snorted. "Dalben can't get us there fast enough though he can speed us along. Just how much help can they be?"

"I'd rather have a bunch of outdated veterans at my back than none at all." Leon countered.

"Oh good, they can distract the Chimera for us." Yazoo jeered coldly.

"That's enough." Rinoa said looking from Tifa and Yazoo to Leon. "I'm not even in the military and I'm thinking more clearly than any of you are. We need to make use of what we have available to us."

Yazoo gestured to her dismissively. "We've got nothing. No matter what we do we'll be getting back slower than we can afford with fewer people than we need facing an unknown situation. We're pretty screwed."

Roxas listened to all this through a haze of pain. His mind was too muddled to really formulate much of what was going on beyond understanding that their situation was dire and that anything the others and Namine were up against was grimmer still.

_You know what you must do._

Roxas blinked, his head aching. What did he have to do?

_To save one, another must be given._

What? He shook his head, trying to think clearly through the pain.

_You are all keys to the hidden paths of this world. If you so choose you can unlock those paths. You must choose._

Choose what? Roxas wondered to himself and the voice. Choose to unlock something? A path? A way to Namine?

_Yes. Do you choose to save her? Will you exchange yourself?_

Roxas hesitated a moment. And then nodded.

"Yes."

Sora and Kairi both looked at him for a moment, neither was responsive though Sora was frowning at him.

"Roxas?"

Roxas paid his cousin no mind as he listened intently.

_Then give yourself to darkness and unlock the hidden paths through the light. Bear your burden well key bearer._

Roxas nodded as sudden strength and revelation came to him simultaneously. He reached out his hand and pointed it at his chest.

"Roxas!" Sora shouted as he too seemed to understand.

Roxas ignored his cousin's cry, it was now or never. He had to do this, to save Namine...and all the others as well. His keyblade snapped out and slammed into his chest. There was a flash of light and his eyes widened. There was no pain, just a simple warmth that engulfed his consciousness as his mind faded from the world. He fell back against the hard floor, gazing up at the stone ceiling above him. Rinoa's face filled his view which was quickly fading. She was calling his name. At least that's what he thought she was doing. Tifa was there then, shoving her sister out of the way and lifting him up. She shook him violently, tears in her eyes as she screamed at him. Then he sank deeper and all awareness of those around him faded into nothingness.

_So be it. Now, show your companions the way. Let this end._

Sora stared in disbelief as Roxas' lay limply in Tifa's arms. She was jerking him violently as his eyes closed and his keyblade faded away, leaving a silvery light in his chest. She pulled him to her chest with a scream that sent chills through Sora's body. He wasn't sure, but he'd thought he'd heard a voice speaking to Roxas. That was how he'd realized what his cousin was doing, but he hadn't moved quickly enough. Besides him, Kairi was watching with equal shock on her features.

"What the hell." spat Yazoo, despite his angry tone, his expression was one of anguish. "What the hell." he repeated in a quieter tone.

"Rinoa?" Leon prompted.

She shook her head, tears in her eyes as she drew back from Tifa who was still clutching Roxas' body. Sora noticed that the gash of light across Roxas' chest was beginning to spread but didn't understand what that could mean.

"He's gone Leon...he's gone."

"What's all this racket?" bellowed an all too familiar and not entirely welcome voice. Ector burst into the room and surveyed the situation. "What did you do to that boy?"

"We didn't do anything." Yazoo snarled. "He...he did it to himself." he added guiltily.

"What happ—" Dalben pushed past Ector, his eyes widening. "Get away from him! All of you get away!"

He grabbed Tifa and pulled her back, his grip apparently very strong because she struggled against his grip violently.

"No! Let me go! We can save him!"

"Stupid girl," barked Dalben. "He's unlocked his heart, all of you, out of the building _now!_"

There was a command in Dalben's voice that got them all moving. Even Sora didn't protest as Leon picked him up and carried him from the building. Apparently it wasn't a moment too soon. As they turned, the stone gave way with a sickening crack. The masonry seemed to implode as the walls were sucked inwards. At the center of the destruction there was a black light, or rather a black figure surrounded by light. It had no features save two glowing silver eyes. It might have been Roxas, save that it hardly looked human any longer. It appeared more like one of the Heartless, with ragged black wings stretched out to either side of it. It walked towards them, haltingly at first but it slowly found increasing confidence in its gait.

"What is that?" Ector murmured, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"It's Roxas." Kairi said in anguish. "Can't you see him?"

Sora nodded, getting free of his brother's grasp and staggering towards what had once been Roxas. It looked back at him with uncaring eyes, devoid of emotion as it reached a clawed hand out towards him. Sora touched the talons and interlaced his fingers with the creature's claws.

"I will guide us there." it said stoically. "I have opened the gate."

Sora tried to hold back tears as he nodded numbly. "Okay, we'll save Namine for you, and then we'll find a way to get you back to normal."

The shade sad nothing as it withdrew its hand and turned away.

"Ready quickly." it whispered quietly.

"Roxas?" whispered Tifa.

It paused a moment, looking over its wing at her. "No."

Tifa swallowed, her eyes filled with the same tears Sora was crying.

"Cloud is going to kill me." she murmured with forced joviality.

Yazoo looked at what had been Roxas sullenly. "You're not the only one." to Leon he added. "What now boss? We got a way back it seems, when do we leave?"

"Immediately." came a strange voice.

They all turned, a young boy with blonde hair stood in a red cloak looking at them nervously.

"Sorry, it just seemed like the right thing to say."

"Don't apologize." said a man standing next to him. "You're the king now."

Sora looked at the blonde youth curiously. He hadn't realized that the would be king was so young, younger than Sora was even. Was this really who they were trusting with the throne? He shook the thought from his head. He didn't have time to deliberate. They needed to move.

"When you're ready then your Highness." Leon said courteously. "We're anxious to help our friends."

"Of course." Arthur said, looking to Ector and Dalben. "Ready everyone. We're all going."

Ector nodded, a proud glint in his eyes despite the gruff turn of his mouth beneath his bushy mustache.

"Giving orders so soon Wart?"

Arthur flushed. "Sorry father."

Dalben scowled at Ector. "Now don't give the boy a complex, he needs to learn to give orders."

Ector snorted and gestured to the increasingly large crowd gathering around them. "Alright you lot, get your kit! We're going to a war!"

The shade watched the preparations with detached agitation. They were so slow, this was no time for laggardly conduct. Haste was needed. It didn't try to press them though. It knew that the body it now inhabited had been special to them once. Just as one of the bearers was important to it because of who it had once been. A small Heartless popped into existence besides it. Its wings fluttering rapidly as it settled its spherical form in the shade's talons. It looked up at the shade expectantly, its glowing eyes waiting eagerly for a command.

"Show me." the shade whispered.

The Heartless melted into the shade's black hand and the shade's mind was filled with all that the Heartless had seen. The crystal had mustered all its forces. It intended to use the two bearers it already had to crush the remaining two. That the shade was one of the bearers never occurred to it. After all, the bearer had unlocked his heart to give birth to the shade so that the shade might save that which he cherished. Yes, that was what had happened. The crystal was stronger now, with its two captures. The Chimera were many and—the shade paused as it watched the glowing stone creatures swarming a building from which issued flashes of gunfire and magic. The other group was still alive then. It watched as its view traveled within the embattled structure, there was a boy there, or a man, it didn't know which, with blonde hair fighting with a massive sword. The shade felt a flicker in its consciousness. Seeing the blonde haired man caused it pain. Why? Was that—yes, another of its host's precious ones. All of them seemed so precious to its host.

It continued to watch in growing anticipation as the Heartless' view shifted from the battle to something else. A temple, the temple of the king it seemed. There, in a pool at the king's feet. The Heartless sank through the water and entered a chamber. And sure enough there was the crystal. It was no longer in a crystalline form though. It bore the shape of a human now. Again the flicker of pain. That was the bearer, the one that the shade had cared for before it had become as it was. The one it had to rescue. Yes, that was her, she was the crystal. Where was the other bearer? A figure leapt into the view, a black cloth tied across his features, a red glow emanating from behind it. The Heartless' view faded. So the bearer had fallen. Both of them had. The shade pondered this a moment more before continuing onwards. There were other matters to attend to.

"We're ready." Arthur said, approaching the shade cautiously.

The shade stood and turned, holding out its hand. "There will be others joining us." it said quietly. "Do not attack them. They are allies to you and the Heart."

"Heartless?" Sora asked as he joined the shade.

The shade nodded. "Yes."

"Great, we've got a squad of kids and soldiers, a whatever-the-hell-you-are, a bunch of old warriors in antique armor, and the Heartless. What could possibly go wrong." growled Yazoo.

"Faith." the shade said flatly.

"Yeah, right." Yazoo muttered sullenly. "Lets just get it done."

The shade looked around at the assembled force, some would not meet its gaze. Others looked at it grimly. Those that had known the bearer it now inhabited bore sorrowful, yet determined expressions. It had been a very long time since the shade had gone to war. That these were its companions didn't bother it in the least. The bearer gave it knowledge of many of them, and the others all had strong hearts. They would do. The shade spread its arms and wings out and a geyser of blackness opened before it.

"Come, time is short."

The creature that had been Roxas entered the portal. Sora was right behind it, Leon with him along with Tifa and Kairi. The others followed behind them. Nearly the entire settlement of the Corsairs was with them. Those few that remained behind were those not trained in combat arts, Ector said that once this was over they would return for them and bring them all back the kingdom but for now they would have to wait. Of the warriors there were at least thirty though Sora had to admit he hadn't tried to count them all. He'd been too occupied by the shade. Now as he dove into the portal he found himself racing along a path of shifting light and shadow. Shapes flashed in and out of existence around him as he followed the shade's silhouetted form ahead of him. The others were all around him as well. Then he saw the first Heartless.

They loomed up out of the flickering light and shadow like ghosts. Chattering and cackling to one another gleefully. They gazed at him with their glowing eyes, seemingly giddy as they surged ahead to follow the shade. He saw all shapes and sizes too. From the smallest imps to the towering winged behemoths. It was an army, the likes of which he'd seen only once before a year prior. He took a steadying breath. These weren't his enemies. They answered to the World Heart and he was one of its bearers. They would not strike him or those with him. He knew this to be so. He looked at the shade, a pack of the dog-like Heartless that had so often hounded Roxas had now arrayed themselves around the shade.

Sora gritted his teeth. "I don't know what it will take, but we'll get you back Roxas. I promise."

_Hope is eternal within a beating heart. There lies strength to conquer all._

"Dad?" Sora asked suddenly.

_No. Your father rests. This is your battle. Not his._

Sora nodded. "Right. We'll win, I promise that too."

The voice sounded amused. _Yes._

Then just like that the portal came to an end and they were standing amidst the ruins. There were Chimera everywhere, accompanied by crystalline human forms as well. The shade leapt into the air and began its attack. Sora leapt at the nearest Chimera, shattering the crystal scorpion with repeated blows from his keyblade. Around him the others poured into the ruins, fighting savagely against their alarmed foe. And everywhere the Heartless swarmed. The imps leapt upon the armored skin of their enemies and dragged them down, tearing them to glassy slivers. The massive behemoths swung their fists and smashed their Chimera counterparts and in the sky overhead winged Heartless and Chimera both dove and swooped at one another and those that fought below them. Sora tried to keep the shade in sight but soon found that he'd lost it in the melee.

"Roxas!" he shouted in anguish as he searched through the battle for a trace of his cousin's new form.

There was no sign of the shade anywhere, but everywhere there were Chimera. He squared off against one of the human forms, dodging a spear strike and cutting his attacker's arms off. The crystal latticework shattered, revealing one of the ruined city's inhabitants, now missing his arms. He fell to the ground, blood pooling on the stonework around him. Sora felt his stomach convulse, he'd never killed before. Not like this. He stood there a moment, frozen, and then Yazoo and Tifa were besides him. Tifa shattered a Chimera with her fists, charges of lightening reaping a shimmering toll against her enemies as Yazoo's gunfire peppered those she did not strike down.

"Sora, you have to fight!" Tifa shouted. "We have to find the others before they're overrun."

Sora shook his head and nodded, moving forwards with the pair as they drove a path through the Chimera. The armored forms of Arthur and the Corsairs were in the midst of the fighting, and Sora found himself surrounded by the armored men and women soon enough. It was in their midst that he found Kairi. She looked at him, pain in her eyes even as he mouth formed a grimly determined line. He managed a smile and stood back to back with her as they both renewed their assault. This was it. He could feel it. There was a finality to all of this. If they could just win here. It would all be over, for real this time.

In his head he heard a soft chuckling whisper.

_Perhaps. Fight now key bearer. All will become clear._

Author's Note: finally started work on this again. If any of my old readers are still around, sorry for the delay and sorrier still that it's not over yet. The latest batch of classes will be taking up a lot of time.


	31. Chapter 28

The shade watched the battle unfolding with an impassiveness that would have been alien to the boy whose body it had taken. The boy would have been concerned for his friends, would have likely helped them, but at the moment the shade had other matters to attend to. Matters that required its utmost attention. The two bearers below were safe enough, it was the bearers that had been taken by the crystal that concerned it. It flew over the ruined city, a flight of Heartless around it, shielding its progress as the Chimera's own flyers came at them in droves. The Heartless however, for the first time in centuries on this lost continent, were stronger. The shade paid its assailants no mind as its guardians smashed through their enemies with merciless abandon. The shade spied where it wanted to go then, its memories absorbed from the Heartless told it that was the palace where it needed to be. Its wings folded and along with its companions it dove towards the ground. It unfurled its wings once more with a snap, alighting on the ancient stonework in a flash of wind that swept aside the swarming crystalline humans that blocked the entrance. Its winged compatriots however did not stop, they swept in amongst the scattered crystal entities and made a path for the shade as it entered what had once been a grand monument to a might civilization.

As it left the sounds of one battle behind it, the clatter and cries of another came from ahead. It entered into the throne chamber to find more of the bearer's companions in battle with the Chimera and the crystals. It meant to ignore them, it really did, however the bearer inside of it refused to yield this. He wanted to save his friends and would not let the shade do otherwise. With a vicious snarl, the shade set upon its foes with vicious abandon, tearing them to pieces as it advanced towards the distraction that was keeping it from achieving its goal. The ones who had been fighting stopped, one of them with short silver hair—the shade recalled the name Loz—swore loudly.

"Aw crap, now we've got Heartless too."

Another with spiked blonde hair—the bearer's brother, Cloud—replied viciously. "Heartless, Chimera, I don't care. I am not letting anything stand in my way."

The shade squared off against Cloud, feeling annoyed that one of its would be allies was attacking it, though it wasn't really concerned, not truly. There was little this human could do to harm it. Cloud came at the shade with a yell, the shade stepped aside and struck Cloud in the gut. Cloud's armor absorbed most of the impact and the shade hissed at him.

"Friend not foe brother."

Cloud stepped back from the shade and looked at it suddenly.

"Brother?"

The shade pointed to its chest, where its heart should have been but where a void was. "Brother's heart unlocked."

Cloud blinked. "Roxas?"

The shade nodded. "Was, no longer."

The combat around them had died down by now, Cloud stared at the shade for a long time before shaking his head.

"What happened?" he asked in disbelief.

"The bearer chose to save those he cared for at his expense." the shade said cryptically before turning away. "No time, quickly now."

Cloud nodded grimly and turned to look at the others. "Zack, I'm going with him."

"_We're _going with him." Zack corrected. "Is everyone alright?"

"Let's kill the bastards." Loz said with an excited smile.

Kadaj nodded grimly. "Just keep an eye out for Riku. He's here somewhere."

The shade turned its glowing eyes on Kadaj. "That bearer is lost. He must be redeemed."

Kadaj said nothing, his eyes and expression set in stone as he followed the shade to the center of the chamber. Zack, Aerith, Kadaj, and Loz stood around the shade on the center of the stone patterning as it lurched and began to descend downwards.

"How did you know this was here?" Aerith asked, her staff held at the ready.

"They cannot hide. This is our world and the Heart sees all." the shade replied quietly.

"What about the others?" asked Zack. "Are they alright?"

"They fight within the city against the crystal tide."

"Did they find the heir?" Loz asked excitedly. "Is Yazoo alright?"

"Yes." the shade replied stoically as it gazed about them at the growing gloom. "They live. For now."

"What the hell does that mean?" Zack snapped.

The shade said nothing as the shaft they'd been descending within ended and opened up in a massive cavern.

"Wow." Loz murmured stupidly.

The shade looked around at the crystalline chamber that had been carved out beneath the ruins of the palace. If it had a more human mind it might have shared Loz's impression of the chamber, however its mind was alien. It saw only an invasion, a disease that needed to be expunged before it could spread. The pillar came to a halt at the cavern floor and they stepped off. Aerith stopped for a moment, squinting in the dim blue green light before she rushed forwards.

"Aerith wait!" Zack shouted as he rushed after her.

She knelt next to a sprawled figure, turning him over in her arms and laying his head on her lap. It was the king of these people, his skin was broken and bleeding in places where crystal protrusions jutted out, trying to spread across his entire body.

"What happened?" she asked him. "Why is this happening?"

"The crystal." he breathed, opening his pale eyes futily. "It feels threatened by your presence. Why did you come? If you had stayed away, this would not have happened."

"It was inevitable." the shade said coldly. "It is an invader. Its time has passed. It will be removed."

"Have a heart." Aerith said to the shade pleadingly, it might have found humor in that comment considering the hole in its chest but it bore no mirth. "He's suffering."

The shade knelt and reached out a clawed hand to touch the king's face. "Rest. Your heart and the hearts of your people are safe."

"My daughter?" the king croaked.

The shade nodded. "She too shall join you."

The king gave a last nod, a smile crossing his face as his eyes closed "We are forgiven?"

Wordlessly the shade nodded and watched as the ancient monarch's body disintegrated in Aerith's arms before it stood and looked down the tunnel leading to the heart of all of this. To the crystal. It looked at those around it, none of the bearers stood with it, but these companions would do it decided.

"Let us end this."

They all exchanged glances before each of them nodded and followed after the shade as it advanced forwards. No Chimera rose to meet them, the crystal seemed to understand that this would be a battle between itself and the will of the heart's champion. This would be the last battle, both entities understood that. The shade, born for this sole purpose, felt excitement for the first time.

_Namine. _whispered what remained of Roxas' consciousness.

_She will be saved._ the shade assured him.

Above ground Sora was engaged side by side with his brother. Leon's arm was bloodied and hung limply at his side, the victim of a scorpion-like Chimera's sting. His other arm was still fully functional however and his combat ability hardly seemed dampened by the detriment. Tifa and Rinoa were with them as was Yazoo. They hadn't seen Roxas since arriving, he'd vanished without a trace though Kairi said she could feel Namine, Roxas, and Riku nearby and still very much alive. Sora wished he had that connection with the others but whatever trace of those senses that he had were too muted to be of any help to him now as they fought their way through the throng. The Heartless surged around them in a shimmering mass of ever shifting shadows that was possessed of endless permutations and forms. The Chimera were many it was true, but against the tide of the Heartless they seemed at a loss to stem the tide. The fighting was no less brutal for the apparent superiority and Sora saw many Heartless torn to pieces by their stone and crystal foes but there seemed little doubt how this battle would end. Arthur and his knights were elsewhere, Sora had lost track of them in the melee but he could hear the sound of fighting to their left within the ruins which he assumed was the other party. He wasn't too concerned about the heir, the knight's seemed capable enough and they had more experience here in this hell than Sora and his friends could ever hope to have.

A large four-legged Heartless with massive curved horns plowed through the rank of Chimera facing Sora. Jumping forwards, Sora landed on its back and began hacking at the Chimera that were savaging its flanks. The behemoth let out a fearsome bellow as it continued its charge through the serried ranks of the Chimera with Sora sitting astride it. Tifa was running alongside, she grabbed the behemoth's armored sides and jumped up behind Sora, wrapping an arm around his waist.

"Are you insane?" she shouted.

"It needed help!" Sora protested. "They were hurting it."

Tifa's scowl turned into a smile as she shook her head. "Jeez, I don't know what it is with the boys in your family? You're all crazy."

Sora smiled at her, standing up and throwing his keyblade at a low flying Chimera. Its wing was shorn off and it slammed into a ruined building, shattering with a crunch.

"I guess its just in the genes?" he replied with a broad grin.

She nodded and ruffled his hair. "Right. I love you all."

The behemoth lowered its head and increased its speed as it slammed through a stone wall. Though the stone was at least five feet thick the behemoth crashed through it as if it had been cardboard. It stopped dead in its tracks though as it was faced by three massive Chimera in the shape of great cats. Sora and Tifa hopped off of its back and stood alongside of it. The Heartless looked askance at them both, its golden eyes shimmering in excitement as its jaws spread wide, showing a row of spike-like teeth. Days ago, seeing a Heartless with that expression would have terrified Sora, but now that he knew the Heartless were on his side he felt oddly reassured despite the horrific visage cast by his new companion. There was an ear piercing screech above them and Sora looked up as two more Heartless crashed through the roof. The two new Heartless slammed down on either side of the behemoth and roared in fury at their opponents as they pounded their massive fists into the stone, cratering it with the impacts. The Chimera issued their own roars, shrieking with equal fury as their glowing eyes blazed with cold hatred.

Tifa smiled at Sora. "Guess the odds are even now."

"Nope." Sora said with a grim smile as he readied his keyblade. "They've got us to deal with too."

She blinked and regarded the Chimera and Heartless around them before shaking her head as she readied her fists. "Yeah, your family is insane."

The shade could sense the two fallen bearers ahead of it. They burned brightly against the crystal's dimmer light which encircled them. It looked to its companions and then ahead once more at the shimmering corridor of crystal they were moving through.

"Be careful. We draw near."

"What do you expect us to do when we're there?" Zack asked dubiously.

The shade looked over its shoulder at him. "Fight. Win. Live."

"Simple enough." Loz chimed in.

"What about Roxas?" Cloud pressed suddenly. "Will he return to normal?"

The shade stopped and regarded Cloud stoically for a long moment before turning back and resuming its walk.

"Perhaps."

Cloud grabbed the shade and tried to spin it around, however the shade remained rooted to the spot and only turned its head to regard him curiously.

"That's not good enough." Cloud snarled. "I want my brother back you bastard."

The shade canted its head to the side, growing annoyed at this delay.

"It will be up to the strength of his heart if he may return. He gave his heart to take this form. It is not something easily undone. His heart may not be able to come back."

"You're saying he could be gone forever?" Aerith asked with a worried glance at Cloud who's expression was growing darker.

"Perhaps." the shade replied once more.

"Stop saying that!" Cloud roared.

He might have said more but the shade's head jerked up and it leapt away as two shining creatures dropped on them.

"Cloud! Move!" Zack shouted, grabbing his friend by the scruff of the neck and twisting him away.

The shade watched this all dispassionately. There was a shout, Aerith screamed, and Zack sank to his knees, a crystal shard through his chest. Kadaj stepped forwards with silent murder in his gaze, his blade flashing at the crystal creature that had attacked Zack. It turned to him and he hesitated, confusion filling his face.

"Riku?" it was the last thing he said as the crystal infested bearer pointed at his cousin and speared him through the chest with glass-like protrusions form his fingers.

The shade engaged the second crystal being, its furiously glowing eyes flashing as it howled at him shrilly. The shade in contrast was silent in its movements and words. It had no need to speak as it beat back the two crystal beings, knocking aside their attacks as if they were little more than gnats buzzing about its head. The two beings fell back down the corridor and vanished. The shade turned to regard its companions. Both were badly injured, Aerith was kneeling next to Zack as he smiled up at her.

"That was anti-climatic." he murmured, looking down at the hole in his chest. "You can't fix that, can you." there was no question in his voice and when Aerith shook her head he simply nodded, reaching up weakly to caress her cheek gently, wiping away her tears. "Don't worry. It isn't your fault." he looked up at Cloud who was looking at his stricken friend in obvious shock. "Not yours either...take care of her for me?"

Cloud nodded grimly, his own tears barely contained. "I'll take care of her."

"You better." Zack said, his eyes closing slowly as his head slumped to the side.

Aerith scrunched her eyes shut against the tears, leaning into Zack and holding him against her as she sobbed. The shade turned to Kadaj curiously. Loz was holding his brother with the same tenderness that Aerith had held Zack.

"Don't you die." pleaded Loz pitiably.

Kadaj winced and coughed violently, blood flecking each convulsion. "I don't think I have—" he coughed again. "—much choice."

"Give him a potion or something!" Loz shouted at Aerith.

Cloud put his hand on Aerith's shoulder. "He needs your help."

She nodded, wiping her eyes and standing. She examined Kadaj briefly, pulling out a potion and forcing it down his throat. He began to cough again.

"Hold his mouth shut." she ordered Loz. "He has to swallow all of it."

Loz did as he was told, keeping his brother's mouth shut as Aerith checked his wounds.

"I can save him." she said, looking up at Cloud and the Shade. "He'll live."

The shade looked at Loz expectantly but he shook his head. "I am not leaving my brother."

"Then it's just us." Cloud said. "We'll handle it."

Kadaj jerked upwards, grabbed Cloud's sleeve. "Cloud, don't kill Riku. He doesn't know what he's doing."

Cloud looked at Zack's body and set his expression grimly. "I'll see what I can do."

"Promise me." snarled Kadaj, his grip tightening.

Cloud yanked his arm away. "Fine." the shade watched as Cloud took out his sword. "I figured out how to use this thing finally when the Chimera first attacked. I don't know what possessed Payne to have this thing built but it works like a charm."

Cloud planted the sword in the ground and spread his arms out as he focused. The shade felt the building power and realized what was happening. Despite everything it found itself interested. Cloud's body began to glow with power and the sword jerked upright, separating into seven different parts. He gripped the primary blade and looked at the shade with an expression that actually gave the shade pause.

"Let's end this. I want to get my brother back, and if there's anyone that can draw his heart back, it's Namine."

There was a sudden spark deep within the shade from the dormant bearer. The shade's expression actually spread in a smile.

"That seems like a probable solution."

AN: Okay, I need to finish this one. I think I owe everyone who started reading it back when I decided to do a sequel to Stormrise. Anyways, almost over. Going to try and knock it out over this next month but training is getting intense so we'll see.


	32. Chapter 29

The shade surveyed the situation with an odd detachment. Moments ago it had been in the company of four others. Now only one of those others still stood. Though from what Cloud was no doing, the six swords of his weapon circling around him in a blue glow, he was by far the most powerful of those the shade had numbered in its team. How fortunate that he'd been spared from the crystallized bearer's attack. While the injury and death of the others was unfortunate, in the long run it hardly mattered. Ultimately what mattered was that it got to the crystal and the bearer trapped within it. If it could get that far then all of this could finally end. The invader would be purged and the balance of the world ultimately restored. This was hardly the most crippling threat the heart had ever faced. After all the previous year had seen one of its own creations try to dominate and supplant it and very nearly succeed too. This was a minor nuisance that the heart had finally decided to take care of. Though to those fighting in the heart's service the shade was certain it seemed much more to them. After all, it had already cost them the life of one of their own. Someone they held dear.

They entered the crystal's chamber, a cavernous underground expanse illuminated by the crystal itself which hung suspended in the air. At the moment it held the form of a young girl. The bearer. She floated above a glassy lake, her arms extended to either side of her as if crucified. Within itself, the shade felt the stirrings of anger from its bearer host.

"Quiet. She will be safe." the shade murmured.

"What was that?" Cloud asked dubiously.

"Nothing." the shade replied with a shake of its head. "Are you ready?"

Cloud said nothing, instead nodding as the swords spread out around him with a hum as energy crackled around each blade. The shade looked ahead across the serene water and watched as their opponents appeared through its surface. The two crystal entities from before looked at them with eyes aflame with hate and malice. The shade considered them a moment before turning to Cloud.

"I need to have time with the crystal if I am to save the bearer. Without that time I will have to destroy it and her along with it."

Roxas' consciousness rebelled against this statement for a moment but the shade squashed his resistance with a soothing warmth that muffled his soul and put it back in its place. The shade was in control now, and it was not going to allow the bearer to force his way out. It was the stronger of the two of them for the time being and had a mission to complete, regardless of any misgivings or protests on the bearer's part.

Cloud nodded. "I can handle them both. You get Namine and Roxas back and we'll call it even."

The shade let loose a laconic chuckle. The idea that it owed Cloud anything seemed so absurd that it served to amuse even its alien mind. It turned its glowing eyes upon the two crystal figures and then up at the crystal once more.

"It ends here."

It leapt into the air, its swings sprouting once more from its back as it lifted into the chamber. The two crystals leapt up after it but they found Cloud's blades in their way and then Cloud himself was in amongst them both. His six aerial blades flew this way and that, slashing at them viciously and using the blades as jumping points to keep him in the air with them as they tried to reach the shade. The shade watched their futile sport for a moment, its eyes lighting in dark amusement. It's jaws spread wide as a delighted cackle escaped its maw.

"Keep them occupied swordsman. I will end this."

Cloud made no response, so focused on his combat that he hardly heard the shade's words or mad laughter. His heart was completely evoked in his combat. He had to succeed, for Roxas' sake. If what the shade said was true then once it rescued Namine it could then draw Roxas back into his own body once more...and then Cloud would have to hit his little brother. Hard. The shade flew on towards the crystal, listening to Cloud's heart with interest. The intensity of the emotions the swordsman held for the bearer were truly touching. Had it had a heart, perhaps it might have sympathized more with Cloud's desires. However it had a task to complete, and the crystal was before it.

Sora ducked as one of the massive Heartless swung it fist over his head and smashed the Chimera he'd been facing off against. The bruiser raised its hand again raked the ground, scattering the smaller Chimera that had gathered around the skirmish in every direction. What had started in a small duel had turned into a massive melee as the Chimera had poured in ever larger numbers in their attempt to take down the Heartless. Their efforts seemed in vain as even the behemoth that Sora and Tifa had ridden in on was still standing and just as furious as it had been when the battle was fresh. Sora himself was beginning to tire, his arms were sore and if not for Cid's armor he'd have already had his side and stomach pierced on several occasions. He'd have to tell Cid just how well the armor worked, even against the crystalline claws of the Chimera. Without warning, a low whine which intensified to an earsplitting hum cracked through the air. A beam of energy struck one of the Heartless in the chest. It groaned in agony as it died, collapsing and dissolving in a mass of shadows. Sora stared in disbelief. What had done that? He turned to find a floating crystal structure hanging suspended in the air with more Chimera around it. It looked like some kind of glass cannon and as he watched it charged again and fired once more. Knocking down the other massive Heartless that had joined the fight on his and Tifa's side.

He looked around him as a chill settled on his shoulders. The bodies of the two giants had dissolved and now a chattering mass of smaller Heartless stood around him, chattering and cackling with maddening twitches spasming across their forms. Tifa appeared at his side as well as the Chimera rallied around their new power and began to advance as it charged again.

"This is suicide Sora." Tifa cautioned.

Sora nodded. "Well, at least they can't say it was easy for them."

Tifa shook her head and put a hand on his shoulder. "Your brother is going to kill me."

He smiled and looked back at the Chimera, readying his keyblade and looked at the dozens of Heartless all around him. Why did it feel like they were waiting for his command? He swung his keyblade around over his head and pointed it at the glass cannon as it spun and shimmered.

"Let's go!"

The Heartless let out a shrill shrieking cry that sent shivers down his spine as he charged forwards towards the cannon. It fired once more, wiping away a swarm of Heartless. Their numbers were made up for a moment later when the large four legged Heartless appeared, charging forwards into the Chimera headlong. Sora actually felt a moment's concern for the beast. It might just be another mindless manifestation of the heart's power but he felt a certain kinship with it. Seeing it fall upon the Chimera in all its wrath was encouraging as there remained nothing on the Chimera side of things that could match it for sheer size. The swarming Heartless washed over the Chimera in a fierce tide that shielded both Tifa and Sora from the ravaging glass claws of the crystal and stone constructs. A low flying Heartless passed overhead and Sora grabbed a hold of its tail. It shrieked and turned its golden eyes on him, he smiled at it apologetically as it glared at him.

"To the cannon!"

It swung its head around and dove at the cannon, Sora let go and landed atop the Chimera's weapon. He raised his keyblade and sank it into the glass construct. A light flowed out around him and he felt a warmth fill his body as he was blown off the cannon as it shattered and exploded in all directions in a wash of energy that singed his armor and hair. He landed on his back, skidding until he hit a wall. He saw stars in front of his eyes and reached back to touch his head. His hand came back bloody and he felt lightheaded. He sat there in a daze for a moment, trying to reorient himself. A Chimera loomed over him, its featureless expression boring into him as it drew its arm back to plunge its claws into his chest. Then the behemoth was upon it, tearing it to pieces and tossing the broken crystal creature aside like a broken toy. It turned its golden eyes upon Sora for just a moment before bounding away to fight in whatever battle required its presence.

Sora was beginning to notice a certain hierarchy among the Heartless. The smaller ones tended to be little more than grunts. Using numbers where their strength was inadequate. Then there were the larger creatures that served to bolster the Heartless where they were most needed. It was these larger ones that seemed in turn to serve as a...well for lack of a better analogy, commander for the smaller ones. Then of course there were the specialist Heartless, the flyers and the ones like the cat-dog-bear-like-thing that had just saved Sora. They seemed to act like bulwarks and shock troops. Leaping into the fray where their unique forms had the most potential to tip the tide. He wondered what kind of mind a Heartless possessed and wished he understood them more. Now that they weren't trying to kill him, he found himself oddly endeared towards them. He blinked a few times, wondering just how badly injured he was to be having such delirious thoughts at a time like this.

Then Tifa was there, her own face marred with blood that could only have come from her. Nevertheless she lifted him back from the wall and touched his head tenderly.

"You still with me?" she asked.

Sora nodded lazily, his vision darkening. "I'm here."

"Good, drink this." she uncorked a purple bottle and upended its contents into Sora's mouth. It tasted foul but Sora swallowed it nevertheless and felt a wash of numbness course through his body as a new alertness graced his mind.

"That'll keep you awake and deal with the pain." Tifa said. "Sorry I'm not much of a healer. That was Rinoa's specialty." she took out a bandage and wrapped it around Sora's head. "The bleeding will stop in a little bit and the potion should help with the healing...just be careful alright?"

Sora again nodded and looked around them in confusion. If Tifa was here, where were all the Chimera? Shouldn't they be fighting or something?

Tifa seemed to notice his quizzical look because she answered his unasked question. "I think something happened. The Chimera all retreated, the Heartless vanished too."

Sora frowned. "Did we win?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. They didn't disintegrate or anything like that. They just left."

"Roxas?" Sora asked hopefully.

"If so he'd better hurry before all those Chimera reach him." Tifa said dubiously.

The shade's mind grappled with the crystal's presence as it attempted to wrest control of the bearer from it. She was willing and even eager to leave its possession, however it was hardly willing to part with its prize. The result was a tug of war between the two entities as they vied for Namine's very being. Behind it, the shade heard the sound of shattering crystal and a terrible shouting and screaming. It sounded as if the swordsman had done something to his foes to bring forth such exhalations of pain on their part. That thought pleased it, now it had more time than it thought it did. An idea occurred to it then, spurred by Cloud's comment. It reached inside of itself and found the bearer's sleeping consciousness. It created a path between itself and the crystal that held Namine. Perhaps this was the key? Could the bearers' feelings for one another fuel the conclusion of this? That certainly seemed possible. It finalized the connection and then stirred Roxas' consciousness within its own. The explosion of emotion and power shocked not only the crystal but also the shade as well. It lost its grip on Roxas as his heart reasserted itself. At the same time, the crystal released Namine and she fell into his arms. As the last of its presence faded from Roxas, the shade considered what had just transpired and decided that this was indeed an acceptable outcome. The bearers could finish the task it had started.

"I knew you'd come for me." whispered Namine as she clung to Roxas' shirt.

He held her close as they floated above the water. "I wasn't going to lose you."

She nodded, closing her eyes and nuzzling against his chest. "I'm tired. Did you find the heir?"

Roxas smiled at her. "Yes, and he's here with us, somewhere above fighting I think."

Before Namine could reply, a shout from below drew their attention. Cloud was standing besides the sprawled bodies of Riku and Kida.

"You two going to come down here or keep floating up there?"

They looked around them and couldn't help laughing at their predicament.

"Uh, Roxas, how do we get down?"

"I don't knoooaaaaah!" Roxas didn't finish his comment as it ended in a shout as they both fell from their levitating height and slammed into the water. They came up, drenched, coughing and dazed.

Cloud was there in an instant, wrapping Roxas in his arms with vice-like strength. "You little jerk. Don't you ever play hero like that again."

Roxas tried to avoid the crushing pressure of his brother's grip but found himself unable to break Cloud's grip.

"Cloud, you're hurting me."

"Sorry, sorry...just damn." he shook his head and looked away. "Take care of him." he said with a snap at Namine.

She smiled and nodded. "I will...Riku?"

Cloud looked to Riku's unconscious form. "He's alive...I don't think he's going to be very happy when he wakes up. I got them both pretty good."

Aerith entered the crystal chamber then and hurried to them. "Are you alright?"she asked Namine who nodded with a smile.

"I'm fine, thanks to Roxas."

Aerith seemed to notice Roxas for the first time then. "You're back, oh thank goodness." she looked up at the crystal. "You didn't destroy it?"

"I don't even know how to." Roxas professed. "I think that other me might have had an idea but." he shrugged. "I have no idea."

He looked to Namine who looked equally unsure. "I don't know...just that it seems very...lonely...upset even. As if its lost and searching for something."

Aerith frowned for a moment. "Like an injured animal?"

Namine nodded. "Yes, that's it exactly."

Aerith looked at Cloud. "You can levitate with that sword trick of yours right?"

Cloud nodded, eying her suspiciously. "What do you have in mind?"

She looked up at the crystal. "I want to try something. I might be able to end this without any more bloodshed...well." she trailed off with a slight frown.

"What?" Cloud pressed.

"It might hurt me...or kill me." she stated deadpan.

Cloud's eyes narrowed. "You aren't trying to join Zack are you?"

"Zack?" asked Namine uncertainly.

Roxas bit his lip. "He died, when we first entered the chamber."

Aerith meanwhile was staring at Cloud coolly. "No Cloud, I'm trying to finish this with as little death as possible. Will you let me do that?"

He took a deep breath, looking to Roxas who nodded in turn. Neither of them had any better ideas after all. If Aerith thought she could conclude this without anyone else dying...even if it endangered her life...well that was what they'd all signed up for right? Roxas and Namine stepped back, standing over Kida and Riku as Cloud reactivated his swords and used them to create a levitating platform which ascended with himself and Aerith standing at its center. They reached the crystal and Aerith took her hand, outstretching it as she placed her palm against the smooth surface. From his vantage point on the ground, Roxas couldn't see much or hear what she was saying but there was a sudden flickering in the cavern and then a brilliant flash from the platform. He heard his brother shout and then everything went dark, save for the glow of Cloud's magic. Roxas snapped his hands out and his keyblades appeared, lighting up the gloom around them.

"Roxas, look."

He turned to follow Namine's eyes. Kida's body was gone, only her clothes remained. He turned quickly to examine Riku, fearful that he too might have vanished inexplicably. Thankfully he lay sprawled just as he had been and still very much unconscious. Roxas turned once more to watch as the platform descended once more. When it reached the chamber floor once more, the swords broke off and reentered their unified form. Cloud was holding Aerith in his arms. She was still breathing, but she appeared to be asleep.

"What happened?"

Cloud shook his head. "I don't know. She said something to it when she touched it, whispered really. Then she jerked back and the crystal exploded. When I caught her, she was glowing with the same light as the crystal."

Namine approached him, letting go of Roxas for the first time since their rejoining. She touched Aerith's arm gently and closed her eyes.

"The crystal." she said quietly, as if in a trance. "Is inside of her...Aerith bonded with it. Now they're one...its contained within her."

Cloud and Roxas exchanged nervous glances. "Is she going to wake up?" Cloud pressed.

Namine shook her head. "I don't know."

"Hey, you guys do it?"

They turned to find Kadaj leaning on Loz who was looking at them curiously. Roxas looked to Namine and then to Aerith's still form before nodding and speaking quietly.

"Yeah, I think we did."


	33. Chapter 30

Sora looked around at the ruined city. Or perhaps ruined ruins of a city. That bit of humor brought a needed smile to his lips. His head was still throbbing from the injury he'd sustained but it was healing well. The shattered remains of the Chimera were strewn everywhere. The crystal and stone creatures had apparently crumbled where they stood and the people turned crystals had simply disintegrated into dust leaving behind no trace that they'd ever existed. The ruins were eerily quiet, even the Heartless had departed, himself and the rest of his party with the Corsairs to find each other in the stone remnants of the city. He and Tifa had stumbled across Ector and his sons and several of his knights. The old man had stood up and slapped Sora on the shoulder heartily.

"I see your father's fire is still alive and well boy. We are the victors!"

"At what cost though?" Arthur had inquired soberly. "Many lost their lives...if I never see another war again it will be too soon."

Ector looked to Sora with a glint in his eye. "I suppose then we'd best find our ways back to the kingdom and your throne lest there be another war."

Sora nodded and moved off, ignoring the bodies that were being tended to by Dalben and others. He did not see any of his friends among the fallen which heartened him. Tifa too seemed to relax some when she did not see Cloud or her sister among those lying amongst the slain.

"Sora!"

He turned just in time to catch Kairi as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him powerfully. He held her tightly, as if she might fade away from him. When they finally broke the kiss both their faces were flushed.

"Later on?" she whispered impishly.

He nodded. "You bet."

"I see the next generation is well in hand." chuckled Ector with evident amusement, apparently the battle had truly changed his disposition. Sora hoped it was a permanent change.

He didn't have the chance to say anything more to Kairi as the others joined them. Leon was there of course with Rinoa and there was everyone else. He didn't see Roxas, Riku, Cloud, Zack, Aerith, Namine, Kadaj or Loz. The absence of the latter two went especially hard on Yazoo who remained sullen and alone, his eyes searching the ruins around them pensively even as the others rejoined and recounted their exploits during the brief but fierce fighting. Tifa too seemed ill at ease, fretting over Roxas and Cloud both. Neither of them would listen to any consolation. Sora could understand their feelings, after all if Kairi had been missing, he shuddered and forced the thought from his mind. It did not help that Riku, Roxas, Cloud, and Namine were all missing either. He wanted to know that they were safe...especially Roxas. If the Heartless had claimed him permanently. Sora shook his head. No. If that was the case he'd find a way to the heart himself and drag Roxas back to them. He'd been able to let go of his father only barely, he refused to lose anyone else, not now that they were so close to finally going home.

Removing Aerith from the cavern beneath the palace was hard to say the least. She lay stiff as a board and with Loz helping Kadaj, who was still too weak to move on his own, that left Cloud to carry her and it was eminently hard to maneuver her body around when it was rock solid. Roxas and Namine were left to carry Riku's unconscious form, which left no one to carry Zack's body. Roxas hated leaving him behind, his brother hated it more, but both knew that they couldn't carry everyone and they needed to find all the others.

"I don't know if we've won or lost." murmured Namine as she helped Roxas support Riku as their ascended back to the throne room above in the ruined palace.

Roxas nodded. Zack was dead, Aerith was...well he wasn't sure what had happened to Aerith and Riku, while still breathing, showed no signs of waking up. Not to mention that apparently everyone who had lived in the ruined city was now dead as far as he could tell. It seemed a bit Pyrrhic to him. Had they really won?

_Yes. _a voice whispered in the back of his mind. _Yes you have. It's over._

Roxas took little comfort from the voice as he felt his heartache. The heart had told him that the last time as well and look where they'd ended up.

_You are this world's defenders bearer. It is your burden to carry. You will ever be summoned when there is need. For now it is over. You have earned your respite._

Roxas nodded forlornly. So it wasn't over, not truly. He looked across Riku at Namine, but at least she was safe. At least those that yet lived would be safe. He sighed heavily, drawing Namine's gaze. She smiled at him wanly, sharing his feelings as she reached around Riku and clasped his hand reassuringly.

"We'll make it work." she said quietly. "We have to."

Roxas nodded and then looked forwards. Kadaj was watching them both curiously, though his eyes seemed to be for Riku predominantly. There was a look of unease about him as he examined his cousin and Roxas had to wonder what the older boy was thinking. Was he concerned that like Aerith, Riku was not going to wake? He looked at Riku, he seemed well enough...beyond the obvious bruises and the fact that he'd yet to wake up of course.

"He'll be fine." Cloud growled at Kadaj.

Kadaj nodded. "I'm sorry about Zack, thank you for sparing Riku."

Cloud said nothing, his face a mask void of emotion. Roxas wondered what this battle had cost his brother. He'd never seen Cloud look so severe and devoid of emotion before. His brother was as statuesque as Aerith who he held. He stared at the sky above them as they ascended quietly as if searching for something he'd lost.

"They're waiting for us." Namine said suddenly, her gaze traveling upwards.

Roxas blinked and looked upwards as they reached the top of the shaft. The others were all there, as were their new allies though it was obvious that their numbers had diminished somewhat. Roxas wondered just how many lives had been lost.

"Cloud!" Tifa's outburst was followed swiftly by her wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately.

Aerith seemed forgotten for the time being and she fell, or rather floated, to the ground at their feet as Tifa held Cloud to herself dearly.

"Don't do that." Roxas heard Tifa whisper. "I was terrified for you."

"I'm fine." Cloud said in quiet response.

Tifa nodded. "I'm so sorry." she said tearfully.

"For what?" Cloud asked in apparent confusion.

"I let you down, Roxas—"

"Is fine." Cloud interjected. "He's fine..." at these last words he pulled away and looked at Aerith's prone form.

Tifa looked down at Aerith and then around at the other injured. "Where's Zack?"

"Dead." Cloud said.

Tifa's eyes widened. "No."

Cloud nodded, closing his eyes and turning away from her. "He's dead, Aerith is enchanted or something and Riku," he waved his hand in Roxas' direction before stalking away from them all, a hand over his face.

Tifa looked to Roxas and then to Rinoa who had come forward to examine Riku. Her sister nodded.

"Go to him, he needs you."

Tifa returned her nod and ran after Cloud just as he slumped down on a stone slab. She sat besides him and pulled him close. Roxas couldn't be sure, but he swore that his brother was crying. He didn't try to pry further though, Cloud had always been aloof with his emotions, he wasn't going to try and encroach on what had begun Tifa's domain. He looked down at Rinoa who was still looking over Riku.

"Is he alright?"

"Fine." she muttered. "He's fine. Just unconscious." she sat back and looked over at Aerith. "I don't suppose I can do anything about her...or Zack." he turned around and point at Loz and Yazoo who were fussing over Kadaj. "Get him over here."

The two jumped to it and helped their brother to Rinoa's side.

"I'm fine." he snarled.

"Right." she replied idly as she began to check his injuries. "And Zack's still alive."

The barb was so sudden that it shocked everyone into silence. Roxas hadn't known Rinoa to be so vicious with her words but he'd heard it along with everyone else. He looked over at Sora as his cousin came up to him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

"You idiot." Sora said happily.

"What did I do?" Roxas asked as Sora squeezed him tightly.

Sora let him go and punched him in the shoulder. "Right, like you didn't stab yourself in the chest and turn into a Heartless."

Roxas smirked at his cousin. "It just seemed like the right thing to do. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same if it had been Kairi."

"Of course he wouldn't." Kairi said as she latched onto Sora's arm.

Sora and Roxas exchanged glances and smiles knowingly. Kairi looked between them both and scowled.

"Don't you dare. If you ever do something like that Sora I swear I will throw you in the ocean."

"It won't do much." murmured Riku suddenly. "He thinks he's a fish remember?"

"Riku!" exploded Sora as his friend sat up. "Are you alright?"

Riku glared at him. "Sora, can you ask any other stupid questions?" Sora frowned and looked up at Roxas in confusion. Riku rolled his eyes. "I betrayed Namine and gave her to the crystal when it took Kida, then I became one of its _things _and killed Zack and very nearly Kadaj too...and Kida's dead...isn't she."

Sora looked up at Roxas who nodded. "Yeah, yeah she is."

Riku slammed his fist against the ground. "Yeah, so anymore stupid questions?"

"Just one." came a deep and imposing voice. "Would you like to say goodbye before I take you with me?"

Sora practically fell over himself at Yen Sid's sudden appearance amidst them. The sorcerer stood in all his imposing height before them.

Riku seemed just as surprised as everyone else present. "What do you want?"

The sorcerer looked at Riku with his dispassionate gaze and waved about them. "I mean to your friends and family. It would appear that you're too much trouble to the world if left to your own devices so I must take you under my tutelage once more lest you do something truly disastrous."

Yen Sid turned to look at Aerith's prone form for a moment before looking to Cloud who had leapt to his feet, his hand reaching for his sword, at the sorcerer's appearance.

"I will be taking her with me as well. I trust there will be no issues?"

Cloud looked at Aerith, and then back to Yen Sid before he nodded. "I'll make sure Cid knows."

Yen Sid smiled coyly. "The tinkerer already knows, have no fear."

"What are you going to do with Riku?" Kadaj pressed, getting to his feet and standing between his cousin and the sorcerer.

"Oh don't look so threatening." Yen Sid replied. "I won't hurt the boy. I merely wish to ensure that the bearer can bear himself." he looked to Sora then and a fiendish light flashed in his eyes. "You've played your part very well Sora, thank you."

Sora looked back at him with a frown. "It was you wasn't it, back home, you made me say that."

Yen Sid's face broadened in a smile. "We are both vessels for the heart. What you said was within you, I merely coaxed it out into the open." he turned to Riku. "Now, are you ready bearer?"

Riku nodded. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Good, I'm sorry it took you so long to realize where it was you needed to be, and that it required so much pain."

Riku shook his head. "No. You were right. I was too quick to judge, to believe I knew what was right." he touched his hands to his eyes quietly for a moment. "I guess I should just be thankful that my eyes are open now."

"Indeed." Yen Sid turned to address the others. "You will all be returned to the kingdom shortly." he considered Arthur for a moment, and then inclined his head. "Your Highness, your uncle and I had a very special relationship. I hope that in time, we may cultivate the same."

Arthur gave the sorcerer a polite bow. "I look forward to it."

Yen Sid nodded and raised his arms as Riku came to stand besides him.

"Riku?" Sora said uncertainly.

Riku smiled at him. "I need this Sora, don't worry. I'll be back."

Sora nodded. "I'll hold you to that."

There was a pop and Yen Sid, Riku, and Aerith all vanished. Sora's hands tightened into fists, Namine went to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You couldn't save him from himself Sora. Only he could do that, Yen Sid will give him what he needs so that the next time he won't fall."

Sora turned to regard her for a moment. "How much do you know?"

She smiled at him, stepping back to Roxas. "More than I care to."

There was long pause as Sora considered asking her more but then decided against it. He really didn't want to know anymore. People like Namine and Yen Sid could have all the answers, he didn't want to be burdened by that knowledge.

Namine smiled at him, saying to Kairi. "He's getting smarter, be careful."

Kairi giggled, which brought a scowl to Sora's face though it quickly turned into a grin as he regarded Roxas.

"Be careful, she probably already knows what you look like without clothes."

Namine shot him a friendly glower as Roxas' face flushed. "And who said I needed any sort of power to know that?"

There was a whirling gust of wind followed by a green and blue glow and then the world exploded in a shower of fire and sparks. Maleficent, Merlin, and Madame Mim stood in their midst then looking about at their number curiously.

"Ah your Highness." Merlin bubbled excitedly as he approached Arthur. "Allow me to present myself. I am Merlin, one of your uncle's advisors. I trust that you've not been harmed?"

Poor Arthur seemed verily overwhelmed by all the sudden magic, Sora wondered just how much of it he'd been exposed to with Dalben and decided that it was best not to press the issue. He turned to find Maleficent regarding Dalben quietly.

"Dalben." she said icily.

"Maleficent." he replied curtly.

She took in a deep breath, as if restraining herself. "I would invite you to sit upon the future King's council. Will you accept?"

Dalben smiled at her wryly. "Stings a little I imagine."

"Will you accept?"

Dalben inclined his head. "There are others I wish to sit the council as well. If they're presence is allowed, then I too shall sit the council. Arthur will need some good influences after all."

Maleficent's eyes narrowed but she nodded. "Very well. We can discuss that once we return."

Madame Mim had Namine and Kairi in a tearful embrace. "I'm so happy to see you're both unhurt. As soon as we realized the barrier was gone we came to fetch you." she looked at Sora and Roxas. "Thank you boys for taking care of my little girls."

Sora smiled. "No problem."

"You didn't do anything." Kairi scolded him. "Roxas is the one that saved Namine."

Roxas looked embarrassed by this but Sora let his cousin have that, he had after all given up his being to save Namine, and Sora had his own reward when Kairi came over and kissed him after escaping her grandmother.

"Let's away." Maleficent intoned, raising her arms.

Sora winced and gritted his teeth. He hated doing this, he always felt queasy afterwards.

AN: oh dear, this all came to me in a rush last night, I hope it serves, methinks it shall all be concluded shortly.


	34. Chapter 31

Sora lay on his back, the warmth of the beach sand seeping through his father's jacket and pressing against his back soothingly. Three weeks had passed since they'd returned with the future king and the subsequent coronation. The monarchs of the neighboring kingdoms had been invited to witness the event, Sora didn't really understand or care about the politics, just that it was all over now. Leon had been promoted to Zack's previous position and though he'd said nothing of it, Sora knew that the promotion stung his brother a great deal. He was just happy that Rinoa was in the capital with Leon to keep him from sulking too much, something Sora couldn't do from such distance, though he tried. Rinoa had actually joined the Specials, taking up the vacant position in Leon's squad and filling it out.

Sephiroth and Paine had not been happy when they'd learned of Rikku's fate. Both had been furious as a matter of fact but Kadaj had stepped in and asserted that it was what Rikku needed. Sora had received, much to his delight, three letters so far from Rikku which he'd replied to eagerly, including a photo with each. He'd yet to try visiting his friend in Yen Sid's tower. He meant to, but each time he thought he had the time, something always seemed to come up. He suspected that Yen Sid himself might have something to do with this, but there was of course no way to prove it.

Of all those hit the hardest was Cid. The lose of Aerith struck him hard. So hard in fact that he'd resigned his post on the advisory council, yielding it to Dalben and retreating to his workshop. Sora and Roxas had both tried to visit the inventor but when they'd arrived, Yuna had greeted them and turned them away. Sora had refused at first, fearful that perhaps Yuna blamed him or Roxas for her sister's death but she'd agreed to speak with them over lunch and had explained that any blame she held them responsible for was forgiven. After all, Aerith wasn't dead, merely sick, and she felt sure that Aerith would one day wake and come home again.

After that, Sora had had little desire to stay in the capital, even with Kairi and his brother and cousin there. He'd opted to go home shortly after the coronation ceremony had finally ended. It had been to his delight when Kairi had come with him, even more so when Roxas and Namine returned home with him as well. That was where he found himself now. On the beach, relaxing in the sun on the beach.

"You lazy bum." Kairi chastised as she leaned into his sun.

He smiled up at her. "Hey, I was enjoying that."

"Uh huh, I'm sure you were." Kairi placed her hands on her hips. "We're at the beach Sora, what are you doing lounging on the sand?"

"Taking a nap?" he suggested with a smile.

She giggled. "I noticed, come on, Namime and Roxas are out in the water."

Kairi leaned down and yanked on his arm, pulling him to his feet despite his protests as she pulled him towards the water.

Sora only resisted in theory, he didn't mind being pulled into the water, especially since his position afforded him a good view of Kairi's bathing suit.

Roxas tossed the beach ball back at Sora who smacked it up in the air where it was caught by the wind and whisked off course.

"Get it before it hits the ground!" Roxas shouted.

"I've got it!" Sora cried back, diving for the ball.

He succeeded in hitting it back into the air, but at the cost of his foot and he was promptly laying flat in the water, where he was picked up by a passing swell and tossed head over heels onto his butt where he sat for a moment grinning despite the kelp in his hair.

Naimine snapped a picture of him with the new camera her grandmother had given her, Madame Mim had said that it was enchanted in some fashion and since it had been dropped in the water three times now and still functioned Roxas was inclined to believe it.

"You look ridiculous." Namine chided him with a faint smile.

Sora hopped to his feet, smiling still. "Yep. How should I look?"

Just then, Kairi threw the ball at the side of his head and Roxas watched with a grin as his cousin turned to look at her indignantly, just in time for her to tackle him. Another wave washed over them as they tumbled and the pair came up, locked together and kissing in the shallows. Roxas felt his face heat and found his hand wrapping around Namine's. He looked down at her and found that she was smiling at him.

"Later." she whispered, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. "I promise." she murmured into his ear.

Roxas' face heated further and he had to let go of her hand lest he simply attack her right then and there. He chased after the ball, jumping over the breakers in an effort to retrieve the floating orb before it was carried out to sea. He'd missed this so much, just being a normal kid again having a day at the beach messing around. It was something he cherished, but also feared that it wouldn't last. After all, after the last time he'd thought it was over as well and look where that had ended them. He was just glad that they'd only lost two people this time. He didn't think that he could handle anymore...and nearly losing Namine was more than he could bear. If he could avoid anything, it would be that feeling of helplessness he'd sensed when she'd been taken away from all of them. A dull ache in his chest stopped him for a moment as he reached for the ball and he paused, pushing through the pain.

The chest pains were few and far between, but when they did come they were always in the same place. His heart. He'd asked about them when he'd first had them in Hollow Bastion and Maleficent, Merlin, Madame Mim, and Dalben had all conducted a series of tests upon him before Merlin had told him that it was residue from becoming a Heartless. He had strained his heart and it was possible that it would never heal. It served him as a reminder of just how far he'd been willing to go to get Namine back. He only wished that he'd been able to bring everyone back. He still remembered how uncaring the shade had been while he'd served as its host. He'd rebelled when it wrote all the others off and pursued the Crystal with the single mindedness that had cost them Zack.

Aerith...Roxas didn't know what to think about Aerith's condition. Was it his fault? No, he didn't think so. Nor did he think Cloud should hold himself responsible. Aerith had made her choice, she had to have realized what she was doing, right? That was what he kept telling himself at least, and what he'd told Cloud. However ultimately, Cloud had Tifa, just as Roxas had Namine. He retrieved the ball and made his way back through the water to wear Kairi and Sora were still snuggling in the water, seemingly unaware of the waves that lapped at them.

"Hey, come on you two, quit it." he called as he dropped the ball on Kairi who rolled off of Sora and shot him a pout.

"It's not polite to interrupt." she said with a smile.

Roxas scowled. "Then get a room."

Sora smiled, no shame evidenced on his features. "Don't be so sour Roxas, come on, ice cream?" he nodded back towards the beach where and the snack shack sitting on the shore there.

"Only if it's sea salt." Roxas said.

"As if there's any other kind." Sora replied.

The girls exchanged put upon looks, neither of them had grown to like the ice cream though Roxas and Sora were both hell bent that they'd like it or else.

"So I've been thinking." Sora said thoughtfully from his position along the tree branch.

"About what?" Roxas prompted.

Sora took a long lick of his ice cream, looking out to sea and the setting sun.

"I want to open a zoo or something, an animal park I guess."

Roxas snorted. "Seriously?"

Sora looked down to find Kairi, Namine, and Roxas all looking at him.

"What? I mean come on, wouldn't that be cool?"

"I can just see it now." Roxas said with a smirk. "You'd have a pliodon tank and more often than not someone would have to fish you out!"

Sora tried to look incredulous but failed as a grin spread across his face. "I wouldn't swim with the carnivorous ones...at least not the ones that eat something other than fish."

Kairi sighed in exasperation and looked down at Namine beseechingly. "Help."

Namine giggled. "Nope, I have mine, you deal with yours."

Sora scowled at the three of them. "Come on, I'm not that bad."

"Oh yes you are." Roxas said. "Remember on the boat ride to the south, that big pliodon you jumped on?"

"It was a filter feeder!" Sora protested. "It wasn't going to hurt me...besides, Rikku swam with it too!"

"Rikku was never going to let you show him up Sora." Kairi said.

"And you're not helping your case much either." Roxas chided him with a smirk. "Swimming with something that big isn't normal."

Sora stuck his ice cream bar in his mouth and scowled out at the setting sun silently. A silence fell about them then as the others looked among themselves and Sora sulked. He'd been completely serious, though he understood that they were just joking. He really wanted to do this, after all he didn't have any other idea bout what he wanted to do once he'd finished school...he supposed he could attend the academy but he didn't really feel like serving in the Specials or enlisting in the ranks or Knights. So this seemed like the best idea, he'd even thought of how he could get the funding for it too. He figured King Arthur wouldn't mind helping fund it...especially if it was dedicated to the monarchy. That made sense right? Of course the others were probably going to laugh at him again when he told them that part too.

Kairi put a hand on his shoulder. "You really aren't joking, are you?" Sora looked at her quietly and she smiled gently. "Alright then, I won't laugh or tease anymore. We'll figure something out."

"I'll help out too." Roxas said. "I'm not going to let you run a place like that on your own!"

"Think you can deal with all the critters?" Sora teased, his previous humor returning.

"Hey, I went to the southern continent too you know, whatever you find couldn't be worse than—" Roxas stopped and looked at Sora suspiciously. "You wouldn't."

Sora's grin broadened. "And why wouldn't I?"

Namine sighed and leaned on Roxas who looked horrified. "You said you'd help him."

Roxas shook his head, still looking at Sora in disbelief. "How are you even going to get any of those things here?"

"Merlin."

"Mer—oh no."

Sora's smile was infectious as Kairi shook her head. "Of course he'd do it...and Grandmother would help him too."

Roxas threw up his hands. "You're crazy, you know that?"

Sora smirked at his cousin. "And this time it's my fault, not Yen Sid's."

"And this is supposed to make me feel better how?" Roxas retorted. "At least with Yen Sid I knew he had a reason behind it all!"

That brought laughter from all of them. Sora leaned against Kairi and put his arm around her. Yeah, everything was going to be just fine. He decided, his dad had spoken to him one last time before finally parting. And that had been the message, that everything would be just fine. He hoped that was true, he believed it with all his heart so he refused to think it wouldn't be.

Namine snuggled closer to Roxas as he pulled her closer to him. She leaned her head against his chest and ran her hand over his heart.

"You were willing to lose this for me." she murmured wistfully.

He clasped her hand. "You'd already taken it, there wasn't anything to lose."

She smiled and looked up at him, her eyes bright in the dim lighting of Cloud's old room. With their brothers gone and the girls staying with them, Sora and Roxas had each taken a room. Sora their old shared room and Roxas Cloud and Leon's. It was a pleasant adjustment as far as Roxas was concerned.

He tilted his head and kissed her on the forehead. "It's over isn't it. Finally."

Namine laughed and shook her head. "Do you really think it's ever over?"

Roxas winced. "More dreams?"

"No, none since we got back."

"Then why—" he stopped as she placed a finger on his lips.

"Roxas, we're bearers, all five of us, even Riku. It will never be over for us."

He sighed and leaned back on the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. "I want to have a normal life again."

She giggled, sliding over and straddling him. "Oh really? And do you think we'd have met if we'd been normal?"

He scowled, propping himself up on his elbows as she leaned down. "I guess not."

Their lips met and he pulled her down against him. Maybe they couldn't have a normal life, but if he could have moments like these then perhaps he could live with that.

Sora and Kairi sat on the windowsill watching the night sky, a vast tapestry of white lights upon an inky blue-black canvas that shone down upon them both as they leaned against one another.

"So when do you think you'll open your animal park?" Kairi asked teasingly.

Sora shrugged, smiling avidly up at the stars. "After school's finished. I've got some time left, I just have to talk to Merlin and the King."

Kairi laughed and looked back up at the stars. "Roxas is right, you are hopeless."

There was silence between them for a while before Sora spoke up again, quieter now.

"Do you think Riku is alright?"

Kairi nodded. "I'm sure of it. He made a mistake, but he's strong Sora. He'll learn from it and the next time we see him he'll be even stronger than before."

"I hope Yen Sid isn't picking on him too much." Sora said worriedly.

Kairi snorted. "You didn't hear a word I just said did you? He'll be fine Sora, you need to worry about us, not him right now."

Sora blinked and looked at her. "Us?"

Kairi smiled at him, kissing him briefly. "Sora, how can you still be so clueless?"

"I think that's part of my charm." Sora replied which brought a laugh from Kairi.

"You're such a bum...I love you."

He nodded, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her closer.

"My dad said to keep you close."

"Oh, and you're going to listen to your father?"

Sora smirked, pulling Auron's massive coat around them both. "Yep."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. "That's creepy, I don't want to think your dad is watching us all the time."

"Yeah but you know what he was up to all that time, he could still be watching." Sora teased, soliciting a shudder from Kairi.

"Creepy." she repeated with feigned horror.

Sora laughed, looking up as something caught his eye. "Hey, a shooting star. Make a wish!"

Kairi closed her eyes and Sora did the same, after a moment they both turned to regard the other.

"What did you wish?" Sora pressed excitedly.

"That we could stay like this." she said, leaning against him and putting her arms around his waist. "Forever."

Sora's face brightened with a smile as he pulled her into his lap and they leaned against the glass of the window.

"Me too."

All journeys must end, but the heart carries on.


End file.
